California maternal health-care system urged to address abuses of black women Oakland, CA—October 23, 2017 A report released this week documents human rights abuses in California’s maternal health-care system and calls for corrective action by practitioners, health insurers and policy-makers. Battling Over Birth: Black Women and the Maternal Health Care Crisis in California is the result of a five year community-based research project documenting the pregnancy, childbirth and

Black women and gender non-binary pregnant people routinely experience violations of our autonomy, stereotyping and unwanted medical interventions during pregnancy and childbirth. Black women are at least three to four times more likely than white women to die in childbirth, our babies are more likely to be born too small or too early. Often, these statistics are explained away by blaming pregnant mamas–we supposedly don’t eat well, or exercise enough, or care enough about ou