Illinois doctors and lawmakers say racism is a public health crisis for Black moms and their newborns

ILLINOIS (25News Now) – February is Black History Month and historically Black women have been at the forefront of medical discovery, at times, without their consent. As Brett Brooks reports, the State of Illinois officially declared ‘medical racism’ an epidemic in the state for Black women who are pregnant. In the 1840′s, 12 enslaved women were used in experiments by physician J. Marion Sims without anesthesia, pain medication, or their consent. Sims’ practices laid the foundation for current practices in the field of obstetrics and gynecology, leading to a crisis for hundreds of Black women especially during pregnancy and postpartum. At times, these mainstream practices can be deadly. Alynceia Boyce, mother of two boys starts by telling her story, “I didn’t get any information, they just got to moving and working which is understandable but I was like ‘is my baby okay? Is my baby alive? Is he breathing? It wasn’t like the butterflies, ‘oh my gosh’ because at that moment I went into panic mode. I really couldn’t even talk. I was just hollering because I didn’t know what was happening.” When Boyce gave birth to her second son in 2021, she says it was pure panic in the...