HOW ROE V. WADE HAS IMPACTED BLACK WOMEN
After 50 years of constitutional protection of women having full control over their bodies, it ended on June 24. It’s going on almost four months since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Since then, the ruling has affected millions of women across the United States, especially Black women.
According to the CDC, Black women are over three times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related complication than white women are. Thus, Black women in the United States are nearly four times more likely to have abortions than white women. Because giving birth can be so deadly to Black women, removing access to abortions will likely increase pregnancy death rates.
Prior to the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, Black women already sat at a disadvantage in the health care system due to years of systemic racism. Black women have limited access to contraceptives while more than 60% of Black women in the US heavily rely on Medicaid, putting them at increased risk of unintended pregnancy.
“There is no denying the fact that this is a direct attack on all women, and Black women stand to be disproportionately impacted by the court’s egregious assault on basic human rights,” said Janette McCarthy Wallace, general counsel for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
Despite Black reproductive activists’ efforts to draw attention to how these laws disproportionately impact Black communities, Black women still feel invisible in the current public debate over abortion.
“Abortion rights are economic rights,” said Heidi Shierholz, president of the Economic Policy Institute. “This decision means the loss of economic security, independence, and mobility for abortion seekers,” she said, which will impact women of color the most.
The system has yet again failed Black women. The hard-fought constitutional right that has protected Black women for 50 years is now demolished, making Black women at the forefront of those who are tragically impacted. It’s another example of a system that marginalizes women of color.
