The Daily Signal - Mississippi AG Lynn Fitch Introduces App Connecting Moms to Resources

Episode Date: January 19, 2024

Expectant mothers in Mississippi now can access resources to receive essentials, from food and clothing to child care and financial assistance, through a mobile app dubbed MAMA.  Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch on Tuesday unveiled the Mississippi Access to Maternal Assistance mobile app, or MAMA, to connect moms easily with the resources they need to care for their children.  Mothers or pregnant women now can "find not only the public resources that are available but private resources and faith-based resources, all in one place," Fitch says of the new tool. "And that is so significant for young mothers to be able to find things that they need, questions they might have, all together." Fitch led the way on the legal case out of Mississippi called Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which ultimately led the Supreme Court in June 2022 to overturn its 1973 decision on abortion in Roe v. Wade. A year and a half later, Fitch says, the pro-life movement is working hard to provide women with easy access to what they need to choose life for their children.  "Remember, we asked the court to give the responsibilities to us," Fitch says of arguments made to the Supreme Court in the Dobbs case. "So we're now embracing that. It is so important that we talk about it, we take action, we implement things that are important for these young mothers, mothers-to-be, and these children." Fitch joins this episode of “The Daily Signal Podcast” to discuss how the MAMA mobile app can serve as a model tool for other states, as well as to celebrate the 51st annual March for Life, which takies place Friday in Washington, D.C.  Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Friday, January 18th. I'm Virginia Allen. Thousands of people are braving the cold in Washington, D.C. today for the 51st March for life. Individuals gather in D.C. both to celebrate, continue to celebrate, that Roe v. Wade was overturned about a year and a half ago, but also to continue to stand for life because we know abortions are continuing to happen in states across the nation. Well, joining us on the show today is. Attorney General Lynn Fitch of Mississippi. The state of Mississippi led the charge in overturning Roe v. Wade, and now they're leading the charge in providing practical resources to women who are pregnant, expecting, or already have children of their own. Stay tuned for our conversation

with Attorney General Lynn Fitch as we discuss the Mama Mobile app and her message to the pro-life movement today. Looking for quick conservative policy solutions to current issues from America's outpost here in Washington, sign up for Heritage's weekly newsletter, The Agenda. You'll get top conservative research, a rundown of important events happening here at Heritage that you can watch online and hot takes from our experts. Sign up at heritage.org slash agenda or at the link in the show notes. Attorney General, thank you for being back with us. Oh, I'm so honored. Thank you so much for having me on. What an exciting time, too.

Oh, my goodness. It is an exciting time. And today is an exciting day as we celebrate the March for Life once again in Washington, D.C. There's going to be tens of thousands of pro-lifers coming to D.C. This is the second March since Roe v. Wade was overturned. A victory that your state really was on the forefront of. Attorney General, as so many folks are gathering for the March for Life, what is your message today, the pro-life movement. Well, again, I would always say thanks for the continued prayers, the support, the faith that got us to this point. Certainly the Dobbs case was a God-driven case, and everybody had participated for nearly 50 years. So to get to the point, the overturning of Roe by the Dobbs case, and then to get it back into the people's hands, it's just an incredible time to think about the lives that have been touched, the babies. And so excited that Mississippi was.

able to lead the charge on behalf of everyone across the United States that is pro-life and so engaged in changing the future. So exciting time. They are. This is a very exciting time. Well, as you mentioned, the Dobbs case, Dobbs versus Jackson Women's Health Organization, that case originated in Mississippi. Of course, as we know, that case ultimately rose to the Supreme Court and in 2022 became the case that the Supreme Court ruled, which overturned Roe v. And I think it's significant now, though, that the state of Mississippi is leading the way on another front. And that is by introducing a mobile application that connects women and specifically expectant moms, new moms, moms with mobile kids, with resources that they need. What is the mama app? Share with us about this new tool.

Oh, what an incredible opportunity. You know, when the Dobbs case decision came down, we said that now that it had been given back to us as the states, and we needed to move forward. We need to empower these young women to help them as they prepare for their families, even as they're the young mothers work with their needs. And so we needed to take it to the next step. And so part of our empowerment project was the MAMA program. And so we're so thankful for our legislature. We took a number of items over there, and they passed the MAMA program, which is now, I think, being utilized in some other states. But let me tell you about the mama program.

It is the Mississippi access to maternal assistance. So very set to be the right acronym to help shepherd these young women, these young mothers to be, and everything that we possibly can with the mama program. So the legislature passed it, gave us the charge to have a website up in October, which we did. And then again, to come forward with an app, which we just launching off as well. Here's what's so exciting about it. You can now go into your different areas of the state of Mississippi, and you find not only the public resources that are available,

but private resources and faith-based resources all in one place. And that is so significant for young mothers to be able to find things that they need, questions that might have all together. So we're excited about that. And again, to launch it off and now to be launching off the app, because most people do have access to a phone. And so they can click on, they can go to different categories, they can see what their questions are, and then we get responses back. And we're always adding new resources.

We've encouraged our public, private, our faith-based resources to come on board, you know, to send in their services they have available, and we can put them up in those areas. So they're not new programs. They're just programs that now can be utilized because the mama can find those programs readily available. Wow. Okay. So maybe a way to think of it is almost like a mini Google, but specifically for resources that moms need within their lives on a daily basis. And it's bringing them all into one specific pot to say, hey, this is what's available. You mentioned categories.

What are the kinds of categories that are on the app? Well, there are a number of them. But as we're talking about the app, I just want to mention too, because I think it's so important. It's out there. This is a free resource. Mobile launch, you know, again, is just happening. And so we ask people, you know, certainly to go look for the mama m-a-ma-ma.m.m.a.m.m.m.m.m. ,.m.com, on the app. And you can go to the Apple store at Google Play and get this app.

It's just very accessible. And, again, amazing tool. We've already had over 7,000 people visit the site. Wow. launched in October. So, again, we know that there's a need for that. And we can provide these resources. But let me tell you about some of the categories. Oh, please.

You can check on these categories in, like, three clicks or less, which is what you want to be. You want to don't keep going, going, going. You want to get a click on and to find out what are your questions and how can we help you. So here are the categories. We have nine categories that are set out. Again, we took a lot of time to determine what are the needs? How can we help these families thrive? How can we help these mothers or young mothers to be thrive?

So we really wanted to break it down into those very beneficial, impactful categories that they needed to be able to click on right away. So we have one on pregnancy. And so the pregnancy, you can find if there are pregnancy tests where they're available in your area. Baby essentials, childbirth classes. So that's been extremely helpful. Another category is health. So how do they enroll in Medicaid? Where are the forms?

Where are the free health services that they might need? Again, very important if you're a young mother to be and you're pregnant and where do you go or after you've had the baby. Adoption. One that's been, you know, certainly very near and dear to my heart is. we try to get these children into forever homes if that's where they're supposed to be. So this lays out adoption information, counseling if you might choose to go along those lines. Again, helping that young mother to be food. You know, just a basic, you know, they need resources.

Where can I get food in my area? How do I feed myself? How do I feed my baby and my other children? And so, again, showing them where the pantries are, where if they can get formula for the babies, things that you don't think about, but they really need to be able to click on and find this information. Then there's another big category, we just call goods, because it's things like car seats, strollers, cribs, necessities, again, that they may or may not have access to. And again, if we can, you know, find that young mother, get her a car seat, get a crib for this baby. What a beautiful win for this individual.

Another one is safety. We think this is important to have access to legal aid. aid, to understand the legal system, to have counselors at a time of need. And then certainly if these individuals might be in a situation where they're abused, how we could connect them to counselors who get through that significant turmoil that they're going through. There's so many factors that we know out there for these young mothers to be money. You know, what do they do for money?

You know, where's the financial assistance? Where can you click on and find financial assistance that might help with their rent or their utilities, or child support help. Again, that's really important for these mothers as well. And another big one, child care. Pretty fine child care in your area. You know, where is it available? How do you get financial assistance for child care?

Again, to move them to the next step. And then finally, the last category, which is extremely important, jobs. Yeah. Them search for jobs, help them get upskilled, empower them to find a job so that they can be supportive of their family. And you add all these categories. together. We just, we just know that it's such a positive for these young mothers and young mothers to be in their children. Do you see the mama mobile app launching in Mississippi as a model that other states can follow and do the exact same thing to have that kind of resource for an expectant mom or a current mom to be able to click and say,

okay, I need to know where I can find child care or I need to know where I can find food assistance. Could this be a model that other states implement? Absolutely. And we've been excited as we've led the charge in this legislation. How many other states have said, hey, can you send us that? We're interested in doing that for our states as well. So we're always happy to share that, provide the information, send the legislation again. And then we really encourage people to go to the website. If they're different places and they're considering passing this law, go look and see how it operates, see what the mama website has to offer and how accessible it is for our young mothers and mothers to be. I love that. Well, as I mentioned a moment ago, today is the day of the 51st March for Life. And I know some people might ask the question, Roe v. Wade was overturned a year and a half ago. Why are we still marching in a post row America? What would you say to that? Oh, I think it's so significant that we do that. We still acknowledge the lives of these children, of these mothers. And then how do we empower them? Because remember, we asked the court to give the responsibilities to us. So we're now embracing that. So it is so important that we talk about it. We take action.

We implement things that are important for these young mothers, mothers to be, and these children. And so again, you have to look at so many of the big categories. So it is important to say, hey, look, we're ready for next steps. We're doing our part. We're excited for you mothers to be. And we're excited for these children. So we have to look at the long range. We have to be very strategic on how we help them.

Here in Mississippi, we do so many of those different areas. We had a lot of legislation passed. We certainly call it the empowerment project because, again, we ask for the job. We're up to it and then how we moving forward. Certainly we've been very conscientious about working on child care. That's significant in our state, whether it's tax credits or whatever. We're working on the adoption system and the foster care system to vet those foster parents out. And we passed with the legislature of foster parents bill of rights.

Always thinking about these children and how do we help them along the way. certainly flexibility in the workplace. A lot of these young mothers, they don't have that flexibility. But if they did and they can find a job, that may be a game changer for them as well. Certainly we've stepped up where we can provide more resources to our pregnancy centers. We have tax credits and we've had to take those up to millions more because people are very excited about giving to our pregnancy resource centers. And then certainly child support has been an issue not only in our state but others. again, how do we make that move faster?

How do we get those children engaged with the non-custodial parent and provide the monies, but also to have that parent engaged in that child's life? So it's multifaceted. That's just a few of them. But, you know, working with our legislature, working with our partners all across, it's just been very powerful and very positive. That's exciting. Well, and I love that multifaceted approach because I think we have to be,

especially, you know, at this point in history, when the pro-life movement, just speaking candidly has experienced losses over the past year and a half. And we've seen ballot amendments fail, pro-life ballot amendments fail and pro-abortion ballot amendments passed. And there's a wrestle happening. And the pro-life movement is figuring out the path forward. And so I think you detailing that of, okay, these are practical steps that we can take, right? That states like Mississippi are taking to provide practical resources for women. What are, if you want to highlight, are there other states, in addition, of course, to Mississippi that you all are really locking arms and that you're saying, hey, you guys are doing such a good job of leading the way on protecting life?

Also, we've just had great response with our states. You know, working together, you know, there might be a program that's working really well in Arkansas. There may be one that's working very good in Louisiana. So it's very important that we are having the conversation. They're looking at our laws. We're looking at their laws. vice versa on the programs as well. And so I think that is very helpful.

We've been particularly, we've looked at Alabama, we've looked at Arkansas, Indiana. So just a number of them. And again, we've had so many of the states say, send us your mama program. That kind of capsulizes, you know, all the pieces and parts of the empowerment project that we call. And then, but again, how do we really reach out to these mothers, to these mothers to be? We're continuing to work on that with our other states because the more that we do, the more that we can help these mothers and mothers to be in their children, again, that is a very, very impactful stage for us to be able to do that from a state's perspective.

Yeah, really critical. Attorney General, I really want to thank you so much for your time today and give you the opportunity. Is there anything that you would like to add today as we're celebrating the March for Life as we're thinking of the pro-life movement about how we are moving forward together? Well, again, it's so wonderful to be able to talk about this and to talk about these babies and talk about the young mothers, mothers to be. But there is one area that's really catching on,

and we need to implement it across our states, the baby boxes. And we now have our first one and our second one about to open up in the state of Mississippi. So it gives these parents that are just not ready, an opportunity to provide that child a forever home very quickly. And so we implemented it. Alabama has already implemented another, many other states have as well. But again, just looking for ways to really help them to provide that assistance, thinking of ways to do things a little differently. And the baby box has been very important here, been very successful already, and we're going to continue to add as many

of those across our state as we can. For those not familiar with the baby box, just briefly, if you would explain what it is. Oh, absolutely. Usually you'll have a municipality, and they will set up a baby box. It is like a wonderful baby incubator. And if a parent is just a, not ready. They can place this child in the baby box, this incubator, alarms go off immediately. First responders, they know they come and get this child immediately. It's usually at a hospital, a fire station, places like that where it's very accessible to have your first responders and healthcare readily available. But we see that it's going to be extremely successful. We've already had a couple of instances where people have gone and checked it out. And so we think this is a great

opportunity for those who are just not ready to be mothers, but to provide that baby. a future. Yeah. Get them into an adopted parents' hands. Wow. Powerful.

Attorney General Lynn Fitch, we thank you so much for our time today. We really appreciate the work that you all are doing, and we thank you

for sharing it with us here today. And we encourage all of our listeners, especially those in the state of Mississippi, download the Mama Mobile app and take a look

at what Mississippi is doing and offering to mothers. Thank you so much, Attorney General. Thank you so much. I appreciate you having mail. And with that,

that's going to do it for today's episode. Thanks so much for being with us here on the Daily Signal podcast. If you haven't gotten the chance, make sure that you check out our evening show right here in this podcast feed where we bring you the top news of the day. And today, our top news will actually be coming to you live from the March for Life. So make sure to catch that at 5 p.m. But with that, that's going to do it for today's episode. Thanks so much for joining us. The Daily Signal podcast is brought to by more than half a million members of the Heritage Foundation. Executive producers are Rob Lewy and Kate Trinco.

Producers are Virginia Allen and Samantha Asheris. Sound designed by Lauren Evans, Mark Geiney, and John Pop. To learn more, please visit DailySignal.com.