Health and Public Interest Seminar Highlights Structural Racism in Reproductive Health

Christina Marea, an assistant professor in the School of Nursing and a faculty fellow at the Center for Social Justice, advocated for reproductive equity and safe child-rearing environments in a seminar hosted by the Health and Public Interest master’s program Sept. 18. The seminar, titled “Operationalizing Reproductive Justice in Health Services Research and Policy To Address Perinatal Health Disparities,” focused overall on addressing inequalities in reproductive health outcomes.  Marea noted reproductive justice can only be achieved through a multifaceted approach that includes broadening access to green spaces, clean air and water, adequate nutrition, health care providers and necessary medications. “Reproductive justice involves the social and economic environments in which we live,” Marea said at the event. “It involves the ability to have care be delivered in a way that is respectful, engaging and welcoming — and not begrudging, biased and discriminatory.”  When these essential needs are not equally accessible to all, health disparities emerge. For example, roughly 45% of people in the Anacostia neighborhood, located in Ward 8, have high blood pressure compared to about 20% of people in the Georgetown neighborhood in Ward 2. According to 2017 data from DC Health, Ward 2 was able to meet seven times...