Recent view pieces and other statements that imply racism is behind higher numbers of black women having abortions miss "the point and distrac[t] from the real offspring: the persistent health disparities faced by women, and men, in the African-American community," Melissa Gilliam, an associate prof of ob-gyn at the University of Chicago and chair of the Guttmacher Institute, writes in a Philadelphia Inquirer opinion opus. According to Gilliam, black women have higher miscarriage rates than whites because they get higher instances of unintended pregnancy. In addition, blacks often cause worse intimate and reproductive health outcomes than other groups in part because of a history of discrimination, want of access to care and other issues, she says. There is "no need to resort to far-flung cabal theories to explain the higher miscarriage rate among black women," she writes.
She adds that "those profession concern for the welfare of African-American women let an obligation to put the issue of abortion in its proper context, and to support evidence-based policies that would birth a cocksure impact." There are a "number of specific stairs policymakers can buoy take right now that could dramatically improve the sexual and reproductive health of African-Americans and Americans in general," she writes.
She calls for comprehensive sex education, help for black women to better plan their pregnancies, increasing funding for Title X family planning programs, expanding Medicaid eligibility for syndicate planning services and encouraging working parents through gainful sick go away, subsidized child care and affordable wellness insurance.
Gilliam concludes, "My challenge to antiabortion activists is to period throwing around inflammatory footing like race murder and rather channel their considerable energies and resources into supporting policies that reduce the need for abortion. Let's get serious about serving women and their families, including women in the African-American community" (Gilliam, Philadelphia Inquirer, 8/10).
A new Guttmacher policy analysis that finds that abortion rates among racial and heathen minorities, specially blacks and Hispanics, ar higher than rates among white women and ar directly related to to their higher rates of unintended pregnancy is available on-line.
Reprinted with kind permission from hTTP://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can eyeshot the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or polarity up for email pitch at hypertext transfer protocol://www.kaisernetwork.
