User:Bunnymom19/African Americans and birth control

The abortion debate[edit]
Abortion continues to be a highly contested topic in the African American community with reasons that differ from those within the mainstream abortion debate. Abortion and other forms of birth control have been stigmatized within the Black community due to the traumatic history of involuntary sterilizations that many African American women were subjected to throughout the 20th century, as well as the history of abortion and infanticide during United States slavery.

Angela Davis, a Black feminist activist and scholar, argued that Black women were not pro-abortion, but believe in abortion rights. "If ever women would enjoy the right to plan their pregnancies, legal and accessible birth control measures and abortions would have to be complemented by an end to sterilization abuse. Davis speaks on the history of abortion and infanticide in the African American community in Women, Race and Class. Her response to Pendleton:"'Why were self-imposed abortions and reluctant acts of infanticide such common occurrences during slavery? Not because Black women had discovered solutions to their predicament, but rather because they were desperate. Abortions and infanticides were acts of desperation, motivated not by the biological birth process but by the oppressive conditions of slavery. Most of these women, no doubt, would have expressed their deepest resentment had someone hailed their abortions as a stepping stone toward freedom.'"Shirley Chisholm spoke to the debate from a political perspective in 1970. Chisholm described the decriminalization of abortions as a necessary step toward the safety of women. "Experience shows that pregnant women who feel that they have compelling reasons for not having a baby, or another baby, will break the law and even worse, risk injury or death if they must get one. Abortions will not be stopped."

The Supreme Court Decision to overturn Roe V. Wade on June 24, 2022 led to economic and health concerns for all women and specifically concerns for Black women. The legalities of abortions are now decided by state and local laws, meaning some women will have to travel to obtain a legal abortion or worry of facing criminal charges. An article from the Kaiser Family Foundation stated that More than half of abortions are among women of color based on available data. In 2019, four out of ten of abortions were among Black women (38%), one-third were among White women (33%), one in five among Hispanic women (21%), and 7% among women of other racial and ethnic groups. The lack of access to health care is one reason why the abortion rate for women of color is higher than white women. White women were also reported to have more access to contraceptives than minorities at 69% versus Black women at 61%.