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Sen. Kamala Harris, who is weighing a bid for president in 2020, delivered remarks on speaking “truth, as uncomfortable as it may be”.

The topic was racial disparities in maternal and infant mortality rates at the liberal think tank Center for American Progress. But if you read between the lines there was a broader theme that could serve as a message against a president who has inspired the Bottomless Pinocchio for politicians who “repeat a false claim so many times that they are, in effect, engaging in campaigns of disinformation”.

“If we are actually going to address what must be dealt with, we must speak those truths,” Harris said in the opening remarks. “When we speak them it is not with the aim of shocking, or offending or making people uncomfortable.”

“We’re here to speak those truths to elevate the conversation,” she continued, noting that black women in America are three times more likely to die from complications of childbirth than white women.

The California senator told the audience about her mother, a breast cancer researcher who she said would come home from work “livid” about the gender inequities in scientific research. One day, Harris recalled, her mother was shocked because she witnessed a doctor in her lab carrying a tray with a breast that had been removed during a mastectomy.

“She said, and I don’t mean to offend anyone or shock anyone, ‘I wonder if it had been a penis, would he have been walking around that way?’” the senator said. “It showed a lack of understanding about the dignity of a woman’s body and the need to treat it with dignity.”

“Women in the healthcare system must be given dignity,” Harris continued. “They must be listened to. They must be taken seriously. They must be given respect.”

Harris has introduced legislation aimed at reducing the disparities. The bill would create two grant programs to address implicit bias and implement Pregnancy Medical Home Demonstration programs. She also has a bill that would designate a week in April as Black Maternal Health Week.

