The Amandla Group, LLC

May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and we’re highlighting policy wins that support Maternal (Perinatal) Mental Health. 🤰🏾🧠🏥

For our last week of May, we’re focusing on ✨️ SB 148 ✨️ authored by State Senator Beth Mizell. SB 148 helps reduce delays caused by insurance “step therapy” requirements — meaning patients may no longer have to try and fail other medications before accessing physician-recommended postpartum depression treatment. The Amandla Group was an active part of the coalition leading to the passage of this legislation. 👏🏾

Postpartum depression is time-sensitive, and timely treatment matters for both parent and baby. 🤱🏾

↔️ Swipe through to learn more about what this law means for Louisiana families, providers, and access to care.

Our voices deserve to echo through every hallway where decisions are being made. We will not be erased, ignored, or spoken over.
Black voices belong in these rooms. Black communities deserve fair representation. And history will remember who showed up. ✊🏾🖤

SB121 is being heard in the House of Representatives. Stay informed. Stay involved. Stay the course. We are not going back.

Get • We’ve seen people check out of conversations like this on purpose.

“I don’t watch the news.”
“I stay out of politics.”

But then still deal with the results of decisions they had no say in.

You don’t have to know everything…
but you should know enough to make a choice.

Make sure you’re registered. Make sure you vote.

“When you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have a moral obligation to say something, to do something. Our children and their children will ask us, ‘What did you do? What did you say?’ We have to find a way to get in the way and get in trouble. Good trouble. Necessary trouble.” -Congressman John Lewis

🇺🇸 While many know Memorial Day as a time to honor fallen U.S. service members, few know that its earliest origins are tied to newly freed Black Americans.

In 1865, after the Civil War ended, a group of formerly enslaved people in Charleston, South Carolina, held one of the first known Memorial Day ceremonies. They honored Union soldiers who died fighting for freedom by properly burying them and holding a procession of thousands — a profound act of remembrance and resistance.

What began as an act of dignity and collective mourning became a national tradition.
This Memorial Day, The Amandla Group not only honors all who served and made the ultimate sacrifice for us — we also remember the vital role Black Americans played in shaping this day.

🔗 Interested in learning more about this? 💻📱 Read TIME’s article, "The Overlooked Black History of Memorial Day": https://tr.ee/U-xct7DYIj

https://lailluminator.com/2026/05/24/maternal-mortality-4/

Louisiana lawmakers shelve maternal mortality resolution despite nation-leading death rates • Louisiana Illuminator The move underscores a broader trend in Louisiana’s maternal health response: Lawmakers concede the severity of the problem, but efforts to enact meaningful systemic change repeatedly stall.

This World Preeclampsia Day, we recognize that Black women continue to face disproportionately high rates of maternal health complications — and too often, their concerns go unheard.

Preeclampsia, a serious pregnancy complication marked by high blood pressure and signs of organ stress, can become life-threatening without early detection and treatment.

Awareness saves lives, but so does advocacy.

We must continue fighting for equitable maternal healthcare, earlier intervention, and a system that listens to and protects every mother and baby. 💜💙