Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s proposed $23 million in funding to improve birth equity and maternal health outcomes for Black women would include grants for community health care providers and a $1 million pilot program to ensure low-income moms have diapers. [Sun-Times]

Pritzker highlighted the initiative on Monday at a former church on the South Side — the future home of the Chicago South Side Birth Center. Founded by Jeanine Valrie Logan, a midwife and advocate, the center will offer community-based health care and birth rooms.

The governor called the center a model for how Illinois can decrease Black maternal mortality. And Valrie Logan would be able to apply for a birth equity grant, part of a $4.4 million allocation the governor is seeking from the Illinois Department of Public Health.

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