Advocacy & Current Events

Melanie Blocker Stokes MOTHERS ACT

Reintroduced in both the U.S. House and Senate

House Resolution 20, the Melanie Blocker Stokes Mom’s Opportunity to Access Health, Education, Research, and Support (MOTHERS) for Postpartum Depression Act

was reintroduced on January 6, 2009. U.S. Representative Bobby Rush (D-IL) sponsored this bill, which would ensure that new mothers and their families are educated about postpartum depression, screened for symptoms, and provided with essential services. This bill also seeks to increase research at the National Institutes of Health on postpartum depression. The Melanie Blocker Stokes MOTHERS Act was voted on in the U.S. House of Representatives on March 31, 2009 by a vote of 391-9 and referred to the Senate’s Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions for consideration. The Senate version is sponsored by Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ).

This bill never became law. This bill was proposed in a previous session of Congress. Sessions of Congress last two years, and at the end of each session all proposed bills and resolutions that haven't passed are cleared from the books. Members often reintroduce bills that did not come up for debate under a new number in the next session.