HRW: ‘Climate Crisis’ Threatens Maternal Health in the U.S. 6 May 2021 Human Rights Watch (HRW) warned Thursday extreme weather events caused by global warming pose a dire threat to maternal health in the U.S. especially for “women of color.” “Climate impacts are expected to be more extreme again this year and threaten to worsen the maternal health crisis in the US,” writes Skye Wheeler of HRW’s Women’s Rights Division. “That crisis is marked by unjust inequities in maternal mortality, illness, and premature birth,” Wheeler asserts, “with worse rates for Black, Indigenous, and other women of color than white women, and for women living in poverty compared to the better-off.”