WHEREAS, Mother’s Day will be observed across the nation on Sunday, May 8, 2022; and

WHEREAS, Mothers serve a variety of roles, including teaching, nurturing, providing, protecting, guiding, and serving as a role model, but there is no one model for how to be a mother; and

WHEREAS, Mothers help raise future generations of Californians and contribute widely to the state in the many different roles they serve in their communities; and

WHEREAS, Early efforts to establish a “Mother’s Day” in the United States included the 1870 “Mother’s Day Proclamation” by Julia Ward Howe, an abolitionist and suffragette; and

WHEREAS, The first Mother’s Day in the United States was organized by Anna Jarvis and held in May 1908, in honor of mothers’ sacrifices for their children; and

WHEREAS, Building off of similar work by her own mother, Jarvis hosted the inaugural celebration in Grafton, West Virginia, and then led a campaign to urge the official adoption of Mother’s Day; and

WHEREAS, The campaign proved successful when, on May 9, 1914, President Woodrow Wilson issued a presidential proclamation establishing the first nationwide declaration of Mother’s Day; and

WHEREAS, Federal legislation that declared the second Sunday in May as “Mother’s Day” was signed into law that same year, requesting a display of the United States flag “as a public expression of our love and reverence for the mothers of our country”; and

WHEREAS, Mothers come from all walks of life, backgrounds, and socioeconomic statuses, and help care for their children throughout their lives; and

WHEREAS, The number of families headed by single mothers has grown since 1950, and these mothers may face unique challenges compared to those in a two-parent household; and

WHEREAS, The experience of motherhood can vary across different demographics. For example, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, Black and American Indian and Alaskan Native women “have pregnancy-related mortality rates that are over three and two times higher, respectively, compared to the rate for White women”; and

WHEREAS, The COVID-19 pandemic has also taken a toll on mothers, and “Latinas were more than twice as likely than their white counterparts to contract COVID-19 during pregnancy,” according to a Sutter Health study; and

WHEREAS, In the wake of increased violence against the Asian American and Pacific Islander community in recent years, a group of Asian mothers have come together to defend and support their children and serve as a cross-cultural example for others; now therefore, be it