Abortion 'desert' in US south is hurting Black women the most

Abortion ‘desert’ in US south is hurting Black women the most

Ten million Black women in the US face high barriers to abortion access, that will be difficult to overcome for many.


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Protestors march and chant in downtown Atlanta, in opposition to Georgia's new law that bans abortion after six weeks of pregnancy - previously Georgia law allowed abortions up to 20 weeks of pregnancy [File: Megan Varner/Getty Images]
By Taylor Johnson and Kelsey ButlerBloomberg
Published On 23 Aug 202223 Aug 2022

In the weeks since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, an abortion desert has ballooned in the US South, where bans are hitting Black women hardest. Across the country Black patients have an abortion rate roughly four times that of their White peers, in part due to lower use of contraception that leads to higher rates of unintended pregnancies. In the states that have moved quickly to enact restrictions, Black women make up a far larger proportion of abortion seekers than in places where abortion remains legal. In Mississippi, Black patients accounted for 74% of all abortions in 2019, far above the national average of 38%, according to the most recent data available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Now, the state has a total abortion ban, and its only clinic plans to relocate to New Mexico. In neighboring states, where bans or extreme restrictions are proliferating, the figures tell a similar story. Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee and Arkansas — where Black women seek abortions more than any other demographic — have all enacted near or complete bans this year.

All told, abortion access is now in jeopardy for 10 million Black women of childbearing age across the US. Many of them live in the South, where Black women are statistically likely to experience higher poverty rates, have less health care coverage and more instances of pregnancy-related complications and death than their White counterparts. Some will have to travel hundreds of miles to seek care, a hurdle many won’t be able to overcome.“We’ve been living in multiple Americas for a long time,” said Kwajelyn Jackson , the executive director at the Feminist Women’s Health Center in Atlanta, which serves mostly Black patients. “But what we’re seeing is another basic human right to health and wellbeing being so out of reach for so many.’’


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graph of abortions by race in the US

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map of where abortions are restricted in US

The National Abortion Federation has offered financial support for more than 3,500 abortions since the Supreme Court decision. The number of plane or bus trips for patients has jumped more than 50-fold year over year, and hotel bookings rose 1,400%, the group said in a statement released earlier this month. Jackson, of the Feminist Women’s Health Center in Atlanta, said her facility saw 20 to 30 abortion patients weekly before the Texas ban went into effect. After, the caseload more than doubled to as many as 60 a week before Georgia’s new six-week restrictions went into effect last month. Now, clients who are too far along in their pregnancies mostly end up in North Carolina or Florida, states that have also moved to restrict abortion access but provide care past Georgia’s cutoff date. In a lawsuit seeking to block Georgia’s restrictions before they took effect, clinics including FWHC argued that Black Georgians, who have one of the highest rates of maternal mortality in the country, are among those who “have the least resources to navigate the law’s cruelties.”

Pregnancy-related deaths are almost certain to increase as a result of abortion bans, researchers say. It’s simple math: More pregnancies carried to term means more risky deliveries, particularly for Black women, who statistically are more likely to face discrimination in health care and housing and lower quality maternal care. A 2021 study from the University of Colorado Boulder estimates that Black people would see the highest increase in those deaths under a total abortion ban in the US: 33%. That compares to a 13% jump for White and 18% for Hispanic people.

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https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/8/23/abortion-desert-in-us-south-is-hurting-black-women-the-most