For Black women in America, giving birth has never been just about labor and delivery—it has been a...
Reproductive justice isn’t just about the right to have an abortion or access birth control—it’s about the right to control our bodies, the right to safe pregnancies, the right to raise our children without fear, and the right to quality healthcare. And for Black women, those rights have always been under attack.
From forced sterilizations to Black maternal mortality rates that rival those of developing countries, we’ve been fighting for centuries to be seen, heard, and cared for in the medical system. Reproductive justice is not separate from racial justice—because the same systems that deny us fair housing, fair wages, and fair education are the same ones failing us in hospitals and clinics.
If we want true freedom, we have to talk about reproductive justice in the same breath as we talk about police violence, mass incarceration, and economic inequality—because it’s all connected.
Black Women’s Bodies Have Always Been a Battleground
Black women’s reproductive rights—or more accurately, the lack thereof—have always been shaped by racism. Legal scholar Dorothy Roberts, in her book Killing the Black Body, lays out the brutal history of how Black women’s bodies have been controlled, exploited, and policed from slavery to today.
During slavery, Black women were forced to reproduce to increase the labor force. We weren’t seen as mothers; we were seen as property. And after slavery ended, that control over our fertility didn’t stop—it just evolved.
In the 20th century, Black women—especially poor Black women—became targets of forced sterilization programs, often without their knowledge or consent. Some were told they were getting routine medical care, only to find out later that they had been sterilized. Others were pressured into “voluntary” sterilization under the threat of losing welfare benefits.
This practice was so widespread that it had a name: Mississippi Appendectomy, a term coined by civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer, who herself was sterilized without consent. And while we’d like to believe this is ancient history, forced sterilizations were still happening as recently as 2020 in U.S. immigration detention centers.
Black Women Are Dying in Childbirth—and the System Doesn’t Seem to Care
We’ve seen the statistics, and we’ve heard the stories: Black women are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than white women in the U.S. And it doesn’t matter if you have money, education, or the best doctors—because the racism built into our medical system doesn’t discriminate by income.
Serena Williams almost died after giving birth because doctors didn’t take her pain seriously. Beyoncé had preeclampsia, a condition that disproportionately affects Black women, and had to have an emergency C-section.
If two of the most famous, wealthy, and powerful Black women in the world have to fight to be heard in the delivery room, what happens to the rest of us?
Dr. Uché Blackstock, a physician and health equity advocate, has spent years calling out the systemic racism in medicine that makes Black mothers so vulnerable. In her book Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine, she breaks down how racist medical practices—like ignoring Black women’s pain and dismissing our symptoms—have led to the crisis we’re in today.
One of the biggest culprits? Implicit bias. Studies have shown that many doctors still believe outdated, racist myths—like the idea that Black people have a higher pain tolerance or thicker skin. These biases lead to real consequences, like delayed treatment, denied pain medication, and increased maternal deaths.
And it’s not just hospitals. Black women are also more likely to be criminalized for pregnancy outcomes. From being arrested for miscarriages to being denied access to abortion care, our reproductive choices are policed in ways that white women never have to worry about.
Abortion Access Is a Racial Justice Issue
When Roe v. Wade was overturned, Black women were the ones who felt the impact first—and hardest. Why? Because we are more likely to live in states with restrictive abortion laws, more likely to experience unintended pregnancies, and more likely to lack access to healthcare.
And let’s be clear: abortion bans are not about saving lives. If they were, these same lawmakers would be passing policies to improve Black maternal health, increase Medicaid funding, and expand childcare access. Instead, they’re forcing people to carry pregnancies they may not survive.
The Hyde Amendment, which bans federal funding for abortion, has been blocking low-income Black women from accessing care for decades. So even before Roe was overturned, many of us were already struggling to get the healthcare we needed.
The fight for abortion rights isn’t just about choice—it’s about access. And for Black women, access has never been equal.
Fertility Treatments and the Erasure of Black Women’s Reproductive Struggles
When we talk about reproductive justice, we also have to talk about infertility—because Black women experience infertility at higher rates than white women, yet we are half as likely to receive treatment.
For too long, infertility has been painted as a white woman’s issue, despite the fact that Black women have higher rates of conditions like fibroids, PCOS, and endometriosis, which can make conception more difficult.
Fertility clinics often ignore Black women’s unique medical needs, and the high cost of fertility treatments puts options like IVF out of reach for many of us. Black women deserve access to fertility care just as much as anyone else.
Michelle Obama opened the door for this conversation when she shared her own fertility struggles, and we need to keep talking about it. Infertility is a reproductive justice issue, too.
We Deserve Better. Period.
Reproductive justice is about more than just abortion—it’s about making sure Black women can have safe pregnancies, healthy children, and full autonomy over our bodies.
It means:
✅ Fighting for better maternal healthcare so we stop dying from preventable pregnancy complications.
✅ Expanding abortion access so that we are not forced to carry pregnancies against our will.
✅ Addressing fertility disparities so that Black women have access to treatment options.
✅ Challenging medical racism so that our pain is taken seriously, and our voices are heard.
And we can’t do it alone.
Join the Conversation
We are stronger when we come together. Join the Health In Her HUE Community Forum to connect with other Black women, share your experiences, and access resources that center our health and reproductive justice.
Create your account today and be part of a movement working to ensure reproductive healthcare is truly equitable for all.
For more on Black women’s contributions to reproductive health, check out our article: Honoring Black Women’s Impact on Reproductive Health & the Future
