The Overturning of Roe v. Wade Disproportionately Affects Women of Color

By Xochitl Armién,

Edit/Blog/Publishing Team

The nightmare decision to overturn Roe v. Wade sparked national outrage as people with uteruses face the loss of their reproductive autonomy. However, the banning of abortion in states with “trigger” laws in place will not affect all equally, and people of color with uteruses will be impacted the most.

This blog will cover the following statements:

• Maternal mortality rates will spike without access to legal abortions.
• Restricted access to quality contraception and social support leads unintended pregnancies to reinforce cycles of poverty in communities of color.
• The mainstream pro-choice movement takes an individualistic approach to solving a systemic issue.
• What can we do to protect our rights?
• For women of color, infringement on our reproductive autonomy is nothing new.

Maternal mortality rates will spike without access to legal abortions. 

With the overturning of Roe v. Wade and the banning of abortion in certain states, people will seek out unsafe abortions, causing a spike in maternal mortality. However, Black women face the highest rates of maternal and infant mortality and pregnancy complications than women of any other race. Pregnancy-related deaths in Black women are estimated to rise by 33% in comparison to a 21% increase in the general population. This is due to health insurance disparities in communities of color as well as structural racism and implicit bias within the healthcare system causing Black women to not be given proper and vital treatment for a healthy pregnancy and a safe birth.  

Restricted access to quality contraception and social support leads unintended pregnancies to reinforce cycles of poverty in communities of color.

In southern states with abortion trigger bans, like Texas and Missouri, there is a significant correlation between areas heavily populated by African Americans and contraceptive deserts. Contraceptive deserts are counties where the ratio of people with uteruses and healthcare facilities offering a sufficient amount of contraceptive options is  inadequate. Since people living in states without legal abortion often times do not have access to quality contraception, unintended pregnancies occur at higher rates, and without access to legal abortions or adequate welfare and social support, having a child has trapped communities of color in generations of poverty. 

In communities of color, the mistrust in the reproductive healthcare system as a result of centuries of barbaric abuses at the hands of white medical professionals, impacts the rates at which hormonal and intrauterine contraception methods are utilized.

Gynecology as we know it today was built off the experimentation on Black women’s bodies. They were sterilized and mutilated without anesthesia and this was “justified” with the myth that African American people have higher a pain tolerance than white people and therefore could endure the torture they were subjected to.

Furthermore, eugenic sterilization laws  targeted genocide toward  people of racialized minority groups. The eugenics legacy has continued under the guise as family planning, with big names such as Planned Parenthood having played instrumental roles in maintaining communities of color as the minority.

Thus, there is no surprise that people of color with uteruses have reservations about undergoing invasive procedures or taking pills in order to prevent conception.

The mainstream pro-choice movement takes an individualistic approach to solving a systemic issue.

For many people of color and low income people with uteruses, the decision to an abortion doesn’t solely depend on having the choice. Even in states where abortion remains legal, racial disparities in health insurance and the deficit in accessibility to reproductive health care stand as barriers to receiving an abortion. 

While the “pro-choice movement” oversimplifies the problem by focusing on the individual decision to have or not  have an abortion, the Reproductive Justice framework takes a systemic approach.  In addressing the issues of “poverty, economic injustice, welfare reform, housing, prisoners’ rights, environmental justice, immigration policy, drug policies, and violence” the Reproductive Justice framework tackles not only the right to terminate pregnancies but the also societal conditions that impede on the parents’ ability to raise the child in a healthy and safe environment.

By confronting reproductive injustice at its deep roots in countless systems, we will be able to create lasting change that also positively impacts people of color, low income individuals, and LGBTQIA people with uteruses as opposed to only targeting change towards high-income and middle-class, cisgender, white women at the expense of these marginalized groups.

What can we do to protect our rights?

  Vote. This upcoming midterm election is crucial to the fate of our reproductive rights. On Oct. 18th, President Biden announced that if Democrats are voted in the majority in as the House and the Senate, then he will codify Roe v. Wade. Whether or not Biden goes through on this promise, any future bills protecting women’s reproductive rights are unlikely to pass with a Republican majority in the House and Senate. This is true for the Reproductive Freedom for All Act, a bipartisan bill that “establishes a general right of all persons to make certain reproductive decisions without undue government interference.”

For California residents, Proposition 1 will protect our constitutional right to reproductive freedom, adding the right to choose to have an abortion or refuse contraception to the California Constitution. By voting for propositions and policy makers whose  values reflect our needs, we will have higher chances of retaining our rights.

Write to your elected officials. Writing letters to your elected officials is a powerful and effective way for policymakers to know what communities need. An alternative way to contact your officials is by submitting letters to the editors of the local papers that they read.

For women of color, infringement on our reproductive autonomy is nothing new.

Although infuriating, the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade was not surprising to many women of color. Government-sanctioned abuses —  such as forced sterilization, experimentation on our bodies, disproportionately high maternal mortality rates and pregnancy complications, eugenic sterilization and poverty perpetuated by insufficient social support for families in need — have subjugated women of color for centuries. I hope that when Roe v. Wade is reinstated people will continue fighting for the rights of women of color whose abuses have never ceased.