Reproductive Injustice: Racial and Gender Discrimination in U.S. Healthcare
2014
This report from the Center for Reproductive Rights and its collaborators assesses ongoing racial and gender discrimination in U.S. healthcare, specifically evaluating U.S. progress through the lens of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. Over the last four decades, black women have been dying at rates four times higher than their white counterparts. Beyond race, other drivers of U.S. maternal mortality include poverty and lack of health insurance status—social determinants of health that shape health care access, risk factors for maternal death such as diabetes and heart disease, and disparities in quality of care. Among non-citizen women, many are ineligible or face barriers in accessing public or private health insurance—affecting their access to preventive reproductive health services and family planning options. The report spotlights how poor monitoring of maternal mortality health indicators, lack of socioeconomic support for health care services, and lack of comprehensive sexuality education collectively influence growing disparities in maternal mortality in the U.S. The authors recommend that the U.S. eliminates discriminatory policies restricting immigrant women’s access to health insurance; funds expansion of community health centers to better serve low-income and immigrant populations; increases federal Title X family planning funding; expands low-cost outreach programs to service rural and immigrant women; and funds comprehensive sexual and reproductive health education.
Reproductive Injustice: Racial and Gender Discrimination in U.S. Healthcare
Source:
Reproductive Injustice: Racial and Gender Discrimination in U.S. Healthcare. Center for Reproductive Rights, National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective 2014. https://reproductiverights.org/reproductive-injustice-racial-and-gender-discrimination-in-u-s-health-care.