By Charlotte Pence Bond
During Black History Month, it is essential that we pay attention to the disproportionate struggles and lack of access to healthcare that Black women face. This is especially pressing when it comes to the heartbreak of abortion that Black women experience. Many of them feel as if they do not have the resources to choose life for their precious child. Black women deserve better. It should be every pro-life person’s position to make sure these women are able to give their baby life.
The Risks Pregnant Black Women Face
Black women face an inequality of risk when it comes to pregnancy. “Black women are three times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause than White women,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Women who are Black, as well as other minority groups, “also have higher shares of preterm births, low birthweight births, or births for which they received late or no prenatal care compared to White women,” per KFF. Not unrelated, the infant mortality risk is also much higher for babies who are carried and delivered by Black women. Those children are more than “twice as likely to die relative to those born to White women.”
In a society that values the continual striving towards equality, Black women’s maternal healthcare should not be overlooked. Every person should have pathways made available to them that will allow them to excel in their lives. Along with this ambition, equal access to motherhood should be prioritized. Women of every race and background should know that when they become pregnant, they will not be at a disadvantage because of their socioeconomic status or their ethnicity. They should have the medical care and help that they need. Ensuring that women know this is also imperative because they will pass this notion along to their own children. If Black women feel empowered when they become pregnant, this will continue into future generations. Young Black children will be empowered, as well. They will be confident that they will have the information and care that they need when they start their own families.
Lack of Healthcare Perpetuates the Racism in Abortion
Abortion culture claims that it is helping Black communities by providing abortions, but the very idea that Black women should have more access to abortion is a racist concept, which is not surprising because the abortion industry is rooted in racism. The major abortion provider, Planned Parenthood, was founded by Margaret Sanger, who was a eugenicist and connected to white supremacy.
The lack of care for Black pregnant women creates a door for the abortion industry to easily walk through. They convince Black women that they will not be able to care for their children or themselves. This is a lie, but the real lack of medical care fuels the higher rates of abortion among the Black community. In 2020, Black women had the highest percentage of abortions in 30 localities that reported information on race, according to the CDC. Out of the total abortions that year, Black women made up 39.2% of them.
Finding Solutions Must Be Prioritized
To separate the lack of maternal healthcare and the higher rates of abortion among Black women is to turn a blind eye to the potential reasons why minority women may seek abortion. If women don’t have the medical care they need, they will feel alone and helpless at a vulnerable time of their lives. Abortion will seem like not only a good and easy option but a merciful one. Especially when compared with the possibility that the health of their child may be at risk if they give their child life. In addition, the possibility that a woman would have health problems or a lack of care during her postpartum period may deter her from giving birth for fear of the difficult circumstances that may await her.
Finding solutions to these real problems that pregnant Black women face is one way in which the pro-life community can come alongside women before they become pregnant and reinforce the message that they will not be alone and they will have the physical, mental, and emotional healthcare they will need – regardless of race.
READ: Black and Pro-Life
