Take Action

Contact Legislators

There is currently a proposed bill in the Vermont Senate Health and Welfare Committee, S. 18 - An act relating to licensure of freestanding birth centers. In the House Health Care Committee the bill is H. 40 - An act relating to licensure of freestanding birth centers. We need your support to get this bill passed!

Below is a list of the Legislators on the Senate Health and Welfare Committee and House Health Care Committee and links to their contact information, followed by talking points. Please send an email to the Senators on the Senate Health and Welfare Committee and Representatives on the House Health Care Committee and ask them to support licensure of freestanding birth centers!

Senate Health and Welfare Committee Members – S.18

  • Please cc the Committee Assistant - Kiki Carasi-Schwartz

  • Virginia "Ginny" Lyons, Chair, Chittenden Southeast County

  • Martine Larocque Gulick, Vice Chair, Chittenden Central County

  • Ann Cummings, Washington County

  • Larry Hart, Orange County

  • Samuel "Sam" Douglass, Orleans County

House Health Care Committee – H.40

  • Please cc the Committee Assistant - Clare Neal

  • Alyssa Black, Chair (D), Essex, VT

  • Francis McFaun, Vice Chair (R), Barre Town, VT

  • Daisy Berbeco, Ranking Member (D), Winooski, VT

  • Brian Cina (P/D), Burlington, VT

  • Mari Cordes (D), Lincoln, VT

  • Wendy Critchlow (D), Colchester, VT

  • Allen "Penny" Demar (R), Enosburg Falls, VT

  • Leslie Goldman (D), Bellows Falls, VT

  • Lori Houghton (D), Essex Junction, VT

  • Woodman Page (R), Newport, VT

  • Debra Powers (R), Waterford, VT

Don’t see your district above?

You can contact your legislator even if not on the committee. If you are unsure of who your Legislator is, here is a link to find your Representative. Select “by town” and use the drop down list to find your town. Then click “search”. That will bring you to a list  of your Representative(s) and Senator(s).

Talking Points

Below are some suggested talking points, but It would be best for you to write in your own words why Vermont should have a freestanding birth center. E-mails to Legislators should be short and to the point.

Subject line should be “Please pass Licensure of Freestanding Birth Centers”.

  • Please briefly ask them to support licensure of freestanding birth centers. If you have a personal story or connection with the issue (i.e. you or family members would like to have, or would have liked to have had, the option of a freestanding birth center), please include a brief story in your e-mail.

    • Access to birth centers is an equity issue in that they successfully address health care disparities in vulnerable populations

    • Choice of birth setting is a reproductive right – and Vermonters do not have that right.

    • Numerous studies have shown that, for low-risk women, birth centers have more favorable outcomes than hospitals. Birth centers have lower c-section rates, lower pre-term birth rates, and lower low-weight baby rates.

    • Care by midwives in birth centers is exceptionally affordable to the healthcare system.

    • Act 167, the study mandated by the Vermont Legislature, recommends freestanding birth centers in Vermont.