SRHM stands in solidarity with an initiative founded by Black Mamas Matter Alliance, for awareness and action to improve black maternal health. April 11-17 of each year is celebrated as Black Mother’s Health Week. This year’s theme is “Our Bodies Still Belong to Us: Reproductive Justice NOW!”, which seeks to draw attention to recent policy changes in several states in the United States where strict abortion bans have been implemented. Not surprisingly, these are US states. with the worst maternal and child health outcomes, especially for black births and children.
While the initiative was founded with a US focus, it also draws attention to the global political context surrounding race, privilege, power, geopolitics, and maternal health. It is related to the fact that women from Sub-Saharan Africa suffer the highest maternal mortality in the world, with around 200,000 maternal deaths per year, while in the global North, for example the UK and the United States, black women are 4 times more likely to die due to pregnancy-related complications among white women (https://globalblackmaternalhealth.org/about/).
Data provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also suggests that while abortion bans harm all women, the negative effects are far more pronounced for people of color. Most people who have abortions are not white, according to CDC data (https://www.cdc.gov/healthequity/features/maternal-mortality/index.html).
There is an urgent need for new contracts and private and public insurance, for improved maternal, child and sexual and reproductive health for black women in specific contexts and to address racial disparities worldwide.
SRHM aims to actively publish studies and analyzes on maternal health, access to safe access to abortion, sexual and reproductive health status, that represent the needs and rights of all women, with particular attention to the most marginalized and those facing race discrimination and other personal status.
In a 2023 article published in the journal SRHM, “Barking to be heard: the stories we need to tell about obstetric racism”, author Rochelle Maurice recounts how in her family women were told to scream as loud as possible when giving birth so as to gain as much attention and care as they could, as obstetric racism was rife where she grew up. Black women have historically experienced racism, mistreatment, and violence, resulting in less than ideal maternal care. Although efforts to address anti-Black racism in health care have increased over time through medical education and discussions of the challenges Blacks face in health care, there is limited documented efforts and data to address them. in big scale.
Another paper published in 2022, “I don’t regret it at all. I just wish the process had a little more humanity … a little more holistic»: a qualitative, community-led study of medication abortion with Black and Latina women in Georgia, USA., highlights how traditional family planning interventions have largely excluded Black and Latina women, and that little is known about medical abortion access and services in these communities. Equitable access to medical abortion for black communities, especially in post-Roe v. Wade era, will only be possible with multi-level evidence-based community interventions, holistic and human rights-based care models, and cross-sectoral reproductive justice policies.
Please find below some related papers published in SRHM journal:
2024:
Obstetric violence in the United States and other high-income countries: a comprehensive review
GarciaLM
2023:
Turning to be heard: the stories we need to tell about obstetric racism
Maurice, R.
2022:
Mosley, EA, Ayala, S., Jah, Z., et al.
Understanding the role of race in abortion stigma in the United States: a systematic scoping review
Brown, K., Laverde, R., Barr-Walker, J., & Steinauer, J.
The Global Impact of Dobbs v. Jackson and the Abortion Backlash in the United States
Kaufman, R., Brown, R., Martínez Coral, C., et al.
2020:
Slowing progress: US Global Gag Rule undermines access to contraception in Madagascar
Ravaoarisoa, L., Razafimahatratra, MJJ, Rakotondratsara, MA, et al.
2018:
Grilo Diniz, CS, Rattner, D., Lucas d’Oliveira, AFP, et al.
2016:
Inequality, Zika Epidemics, and Lack of Reproductive Rights in Latin America
González Vélez, AC, & Diniz, SG
2012:
Kismödi, E., de Mesquita, JB, Ibañez, XA, et al.
2007:
Misclassified maternal deaths among East African immigrants to Sweden
Elebro, K., Rööst, M., Moussa, K., et al.
