As the Supreme Court weighs the fate of Roe v. wade, advocates and health care providers fear that cutting off abortion access will lead to more pregnancy-related complications and deaths that disproportionately affect Black people.
Why it Matters
Black women in the US are already three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications compared to white women. And states that are about to ban or severely limit abortion already tend to have poor health outcomes and fewer safety net programs for mothers and children.
"The most dangerous medical scenario for a woman is not abortion but childbirth"
State of the Situation
Black women have less access to resources such as birth control and prenatal care, in part due to income inequality, according to the National Association for Women and Families.
Compared to white women, they are more likely to experience pregnancy-related complications and deaths and have a higher risk of miscarriage.
Black women face too everyday discrimination in medical settings as the dismissal of symptoms and false beliefs about racial differences which can negatively affect their birthing process, said Yolanda Barksdale, press secretary for the Poor People’s Campaign.
More states are expanding Medicaid coverage of maternity services for low-income women, including extending the postpartum coverage period. More than half have recently taken steps to extend the postpartum coverage period beyond 60 days.
But that hasn’t lessened concerns that more black women are being forced to carry full-term pregnancies in states that ban access to abortions, and how that could put them at greater risk.
What They are Saying
“Because of the increased mortality and morbidity risks faced by Black women and those who give birth, it is particularly inconceivable to force the continuation of an unwanted pregnancy,” Jamila Perritt, an obstetrician and gynecologist who leads the group Doctors, tells Axios. for Reproductive Health.
The most dangerous medical scenario for a woman is not abortion but childbirth, said Dázon Dixon Diallo, founder of the reproductive justice advocacy organization SisterLove. “Abortion only becomes one of the most dangerous procedures when it is no longer legal and safe.”
Abortion is also important because “it’s about our right to control our bodies because we’ve been fighting for that since we were brought to these shores,” she added.
The Other Side
Cherilyn Holloway, president of Pro-Black Pro-Life, a nonprofit organization focused on racial justice, told Axios that abortion will not solve the systemic inequalities that force black women to undergo the procedure in the first place.
A high maternal mortality rate “is not a sufficient argument why abortion should be legal. That is a sufficient argument why we need to address systemic racist problems in health care and implicit bias in health care,” he said.
“If you’re making a decision because you feel like you don’t have a choice, that’s not a choice,” he noted. Abortion is a temporary solution, one that her group hopes is unnecessary, she added.
The Panorama
Black advocates from across the spectrum are already organizing, both at the national legislative level and on the ground.
“We’re going to focus on the most vulnerable women, making sure they don’t die while these slow legal processes go through,” reproductive rights activist Loretta Ross tells Axios.
What We are Seeing
Doctors have warned that tipping Roe could add undue stress to a already overloaded social safety netincluding the foster care system and efforts to reduce domestic violence.
Originally published on 4HerWorld
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