Honoring Black History Means Fighting for the Future of Black Maternal Health

Our nation’s history of anti-Black racism is deeply ingrained into every facet of U.S. society, especially within our institutions and systems. Our health-care system is not exempt from this stark reality and has a painful legacy of racism that continues to harm Black communities to this day. We know that interpersonal and structural racism within medicine has led to devastating inequities in care provision, patient experience, and health outcomes for Black communities. Black people face increased barriers to accessing and utilizing health care; are more likely to face social, political, and economic challenges that adversely impact health, such as poverty, housing, and food insecurity; and Black people commonly experience discrimination and bias from their providers and within the medical institutions that serve them. These inequities are compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic’s heightened effects on Black communities versus white, ongoing police violence against Black people like George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and others, and is in relationship with and reflects the ongoing abuses we historically faced during slavery and segregation, as well as today’s mass incarceration crises. This may be most evident in the maternal health sector, where Black women and birthing people face unimaginable, deathly threats to their autonomy, health, and...