People of color will undoubtedly suffer – as with all things health care related – the brunt of the negative impact following the Supreme Court’s overturning Roe v. Wade, abortion rights advocates warn. Healthcare disparities continue to plague Black and Brown communities, although many experts report that the gap is not as expansive as it was prior to the Affordable Healthcare Act.
Restrictions on reproductive rights on all women, Black, White, Brown, Asian, Native American at the very least limit the quality of life for women of those ethnicities, they are also major detriments to women subject to a number of health maladies.
Abortion rights advocates understand there are several factors that go into a person’s decision to seek an abortion most of which are complex and agonizing for women in every segment of the population, but even more so for those of lesser means of including health care access and quality, financial support and willingness to be pregnant.
Consequently, the country’s most marginalized populations will be affected by abortion bans as they struggle with poverty, lack of health care access and racism in the health care system.
The crisis is most evident in women of color who on a daily basis stretch limited resources to maintain basic standards of living and in that fragile balance to survive are mandated to take on profound and lifelong changes to their at the very least difficult, and in some cases impossible conditions.
In the most recent data from the CDC in 2019, Black women had the highest rate of abortions with 23.8 abortions per 1,000 women.
Number of reported abortions, by known race/ethnicity and reporting area of occurrence — selected reporting areas, United States, 2019
Number of reported abortions, by known weeks of gestation* and reporting area of occurrence — selected reporting areas,† United States, 2019
Percentage of reported abortions, by known weeks of gestation and year — selected reporting areas, United States, 2019
The US health care system has long been characterized by large and persistent racial/ethnic disparities in health insurance coverage and access to care. Research has shown that racial and ethnic minorities often receive lower-quality health care than white people. When the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was passed in 2010, among nonelderly adults, non-Hispanic blacks were 70 percent more likely to be uninsured than non-Hispanic whites were. These disparities in insurance coverage contributed to poorer access to care and worse health outcomes for members of racial/ethnic minority groups.
Blacks access to care typically results in forgoing care because of cost and not having a usual source of care.
Experts conclude America’s poor systems of health make abortions a vital part of health care for people of color.
Those factors coupled with the significant and disturbing rise in maternal deaths in too many cases make pregnancy a death sentence of for a significant number of Black women.
A recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that Black women died of maternal causes at nearly three times the rate of white women in 2020.
Maternal deaths were defined as women who died either while pregnant or within 42 days of the end of pregnancy.
In 2020, 861 women in the U.S. died of maternal causes — a rate of 23.8 per 100,000 live births, the report found.
Maternal Mortality Rates in the U.S. 2018 to 2020
The rate for Black women was 55.3 deaths per 100,000 in 2020 and the rate for white women was 19.1 deaths per 100,000, according to the CDC. For Black women, the rate increased nearly 26% from the year prior.
Being pregnant presents some kind of risk. And unintended pregnancies increase the risk for poor maternal and infant outcomes, the CDC reports.
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