Abortion Stories Crucial for Black Maternal Health Week

This Black Maternal Health Week, it’s crucial to recognize that the conversation around maternal health is incomplete without acknowledging and centering abortion stories. For Black women and birthing people, these narratives are not separate from maternal care; they are an integral part of it, empowering individuals to make decisions about their bodies and futures.

The Lingering Impact of Stigma

The author shares a deeply personal account of experiencing abortion stigma from a young age, which continued even after marriage and childbirth. A life-saving D&C procedure was initially denied coverage because it was coded as an abortion, highlighting the financial and emotional costs of anti-abortion sentiment. This experience underscores how the line between essential healthcare and elective procedures is often blurred and selectively enforced.

These personal experiences fuel the work of reproductive justice advocates, reminding us that abortion access is fundamentally a maternal health issue. Organizations like the Black Mamas Matter Alliance affirm that abortion care is vital for holistic maternity care, yet these stories remain largely absent from public discourse.

Abortion Access as a Maternal Health Issue

Medical professionals and researchers consistently support abortion as essential healthcare, often noting it carries fewer risks than childbirth. The tragic stories of Black women who have faced severe health consequences or death due to delayed or denied abortion care, such as Candi Miller, Tierra Walker, Ciji Graham, and Amber Nicole Thurman, undeniably prove this connection. These accounts reveal how abortion stigma exacerbates the disproportionate risks Black women face during pregnancy and birth.

Historically, Black communities have utilized forms of reproductive autonomy, sometimes referred to as “calling on your moon” or “calling on your menses,” as a means of control. This deep understanding of body literacy, though diminished, was a vital tool for enslaved women facing rape and abuse. Today, in an intense anti-choice climate, sharing abortion stories, even when difficult, can be an act of liberation and community building.

Centering Black Voices in Reproductive Health

Organizations like We Testify, Sistersong, and Free Black Motherhood are creating vital spaces for Black individuals to share their complex reproductive stories. Books such as “Liberating Abortion” by Renee Bracey Sherman and Regina Mahoney highlight the empowering narratives and the crucial role Black women play in advancing abortion access and discourse. Telling these stories on our own terms is a powerful act of reclaiming narrative and demanding agency.

The fight for reproductive liberation extends beyond just abortion access. It encompasses safe birth, an end to forced sterilization, support for infertility, access to contraception, comprehensive sexual education, and the prioritization of joy and pleasure. These are not competing priorities but interconnected elements of a reproductive continuum that Black women have championed. This Black Maternal Health Week, let’s ensure our calls for change and our celebrations are complete by including and honoring our abortion stories.