systemic racism |

When it comes to maternal mortality, American women don’t all live in the same country. While white women live in Qatar, black women live in Mongolia.

Maternal mortality is death related to complications from pregnancy or childbirth. Most of us don’t come from a time or place where the prospect of dying in childbirth is a tangible possibility — in the past century, as medicine has advanced, maternal mortality rates have plummeted.

To raise healthy families, we need access to general and reproductive health care, including preventive care, prenatal care, and maternity care.

The United States, though, hasn’t come as far as would be expected. Although its wealth should have put it on par with other developed nations like Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, Japan, and those in Scandinavia, women in these countries fare far better than those in the United States. So do women in Libya, Bosnia and Herzogovina, Bulgaria, and Kazakhstan, indicating that national priorities — and not necessarily national wealth — are key to ensuring maternal health.

The United States’ high maternal mortality rate is heartbreaking no matter how you look at it, but is even worse for women of color. African-American women are 3.5 times more likely to die as a result of pregnancy or childbirth than white women. Between 2011 and 2013, the maternal mortality rate for white women was 12.7 deaths per 100,000 live births. Comparing that to 2015 data from the World Health Organization (WHO), that rate puts white women’s maternal mortality on par with mothers in Qatar and Bahrain, two wealthy Persian Gulf nations. African-American women, however, suffered 43.5 deaths per 100,000 live births, putting their maternal mortality on par with those of Turkmenistan, Brazil, and Mongolia. Continue reading →

Photo: Jamelah E.

When Donald Trump won the electoral vote after the presidential election on November 8, the majority of us — by more than a million — were deeply disappointed with the results. In the ensuing days, we battled our depression and wondered what had gone so terribly wrong. Collectively, we imagined what a Trump presidency would mean for civil rights and civil liberties, for the economy and the environment, for education and for health care.

And those of us championing women’s right to bodily autonomy worried that reproductive justice had never been in more danger. Those of us concerned with the safety of the LGBTQ community were terrified that their hard-won gains might be rolled back. Those of us standing in solidarity with other marginalized groups — immigrants, religious minorities, refugees, people of color — were filled with anxiety at the thought that Trump’s hate-filled campaign had empowered bigots to let their prejudice reign free.

Here, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona bloggers have collected their thoughts to share with our readers.

Gene:

I was always inspired by Hillary’s words to the United Nations in 1995, when she said that “Women’s rights are human rights.” Whenever a woman’s reproductive and sexual rights are denied, I take it personally, for it is telling her that she is less of a person and does not have the same rights as I do as a male. So I will resist in whatever ways I can the ignorant, misogynist forces unleashed in this election. I will stand tall with this organization I love, and will openly show my support. One thing we can all do right now is to wear our Planned Parenthood T-shirts whenever we can. It’s a little thing, but it’s guaranteed to make you feel better during these dark days. I wear mine at least two or three times a week, on my walks downtown or when attending various events. It is surprising to me how often I’ve attended large public gatherings and not seen one other Planned Parenthood shirt. Let’s all get out there with our T-shirts and turn Arizona pink. Let’s tell everyone that this is our country, too — one where women have the same rights as men.

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Post-Election Reflections: Our Bloggers Speak Out