Black Women College Activists Have Reproductive Rights On Their Minds

Black women in the United States are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than their white counterparts — a trend that persists regardless of age, socio-economic background, or educational level. With the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, sending abortion legislation back to the states, even more Black lives are threatened. As shown in a study in Demography by Amanda Stevenson, a full-on abortion ban could further increase Black maternal deaths by 33%, compared to a 21% increase for the overall population.

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, “more than half of abortions are among women of color based on available data. In 2019, almost four in ten abortions were among Black women (38%), one-third were among White women (33%), one in five among Hispanic women (21%), and 7% among women of other racial and ethnic groups. The abortion rate was highest among Black women (23.8 per 1,000 women), compared to 11.7 among Hispanic women, and 6.6 among White women.” Moreover, most abortion bans are in states that also have some of the highest Black maternal mortality rates and poverty rates.

The fight for reproductive justice is prominent not only in local Black communities but on college campuses as well. Young Black women participating in the Black Women’s Health Imperative (BWHI)’s My Sister’s Keeper (MSK) program are learning about reproductive justice and are being trained to be a part of the movement for reproductive freedom. According to Zsanai Epps, director of MSK, young activists “are looking at institutions, policies, and structures, and are calling out the harm they perpetuate when it comes to reproductive health, rights, and justice.”

The BWHI is the first and only national non-profit organization created for and by Black women, and dedicated to improving the health and wellness of the country’s 21 million Black women and girls — physically, emotionally, and financially. In the spring of 2022, the BWHI MSK program launched its first training cohort of 15 young Black women representatives from several Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in reproductive rights organizing. The cohort underwent an 8-week leadership development experience to build skills and deepen their knowledge of reproductive health, rights, and justice. Epps shared, “The cohort was taught from a Black feminist perspective centering the work, lives, and experiences of Black women, girls, gender non-conforming, trans, and nonbinary people.” Black feminism is a framing that provides Black women with the tools to push back against intersecting oppressions.

The young Black women working with MSK are also taking advantage of reproductive justice, doula, organizing, and advocacy training. Moreover, these women are educating their peers, partnering with other student organizations to provide resources, fundraising, and creating safe spaces for those who have experienced sexual assault and domestic violence. Epps added, these Black women college students are also looking at the health centers on their campuses and advocating for them to provide “Plan B, abortion pills, and contraception such as birth control, condoms, and frequent sexually transmitted infection (STI) testing.”

The overturning of Roe v. Wade has spurred even more of an activist spirit among many of the young Black women involved in MSK. For example, Dajah, stated “I think it is a shame to take away women’s choice and autonomy over their bodies, I think it’s really up to the person who’s giving birth to decide if they want to or not. I don’t think the government should be able to control and decide such intimate and personal things for someone.” Dajah’s perspective is similar to 62% of U.S. citizens who believe that abortion should be legal in all or most cases.

Likewise, according to ViaFaith, “It’s definitely disheartening and I believe we will look back and see it as a blot on America’s history. I believe that it’s egregious that the state or America as it functions can continue to subvert the rights of people, women, and people of color in this country, and I believe that it’s not just about what will happen for this present moment but for future generations, and things to come.”

These Black women college students fear for their safety and health, they worry about the increased stress on their lives, and they are concerned for their friends, sisters, and those women and girls who come after them. These fears are the impetus for their activism. When asked to share what their lives would be like if reproductive justice existed, they expressed that they would have “full bodily autonomy, the right to decide whether or not to bear children, and to be free of systematic oppression ingrained within this country’s social, political, and economic framework.”

Despite fears and obstacles, from Epps’ perspective, the work of BWHI and MSK provides Black women college students “an opportunity to engage in substantive policy discussions—particularly around key health policy issues [that have an impact on] Black women and girls—and to seek meaningful solutions.”