Our Bodies, Our Rights
Meredith Stern
JustSeeds
Digital Print, 2019
Oakland, CA
Poster text:
We need safe and healthy communities including [an] elimination of stereotype based services and culturally competent providers who speak our languages. HIV and STD and AIDS information and services. We need drug and alcohol treatment services. We need services for women who are incarcerated and reproductive care coverage on all health plans.
We need access to reproductive resources including birth control methods to meet our individual needs. And an end to population control methods of coercive sterilization. We need prenatal and postnatal care. We also need safe and accessible and affordable abortion and contraceptive services and teen pregnancy services and comprehensive sex education beyond abstinence only.
One in three women will have an abortion in their lifetime
Sixty one percent of abortions are obtained by mothers
CSPG’s featured poster honors Black Maternal Health Week, a national week of action to raise awareness around racial inequalities in maternal health for Black women and birthing people in the United States.
Started in 2018 by the Black Mamas Matter Alliance, Black Maternal Health Week centers the experiences and expertise of Black birthing people, community-care centered healthcare providers, and birth workers like midwives and doulas.
As of 2021, Black women are three times more likely to experience pregnancy-
related death than white women, and more likely to experience preventable maternal death. These statistics are criminal. Factors contributing to the current maternal mortality rates in the United States include biased and discriminatory treatment from healthcare providers, limited access to quality care, and broader social and economic inequities that are rooted in systemic racism. The U.S. is in a reproductive justice crisis. The overturning of Roe v. Wade and escalating abortion restrictions continue to undermine access to equitable quality care such as miscarriage management, early detection of pregnancy complications, and essential early pregnancy care, especially for Black women.
Last week in Texas, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk ruled that the Food and Drug Administration had improperly approved the abortion pill Mifepristone back in 2000. This ruling paused FDA’s approval for the pill, the full ban was to go into effect later this week. Banning abortion nationwide could lead to a 33% increase in the number of pregnancy-related deaths among Black women. (Marshall, 2021) Research shows that Black women are more likely to live in “contraceptive deserts,” places where barriers to accessing contraceptives are high; this thereby increases the demand and importance for mail order abortion pills like Mifepristone.
The fight for reproductive rights and bodily autonomy for Black women and birthing people in the U.S. is not new. As the fight continues, we must uplift and empower the choices of all.
Reproductive justice for all! Birth Justice for all!
Update:
Attorney General Merrick Garland said that the Justice Department will take the dispute over medication abortion drugs to the Supreme Court. Cross your fingers, write your letters, and take to the streets!
Demonstrations for Reproductive Rights will take place across the U.S. this Saturday, April 15. To find the closest one, visit: https://action.womensmarch.com/local
The Los Angeles march will start at 10am, Pershing Square.
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