�Accusations in the media that black women have higher miscarriage rates than white women because miscarriage is "more than aggressively marketed" toward blacks "mis[s] the point and distrac[t] from the real issue: the persistent health disparities faced by women, and work force, in the African-American biotic community," Melissa Gilliam, an associate degree professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Chicago and hot seat of the Guttmacher Institute's board of directors, writes in a Philadelphia Inquirer opinion piece.
According to Gilliam, black women have higher rates of abortions than white women because they have much higher rates of unintended pregnancies. "In other words, there is no pauperism to resort to far-flung conspiracy theories to excuse the higher abortion rate among black women," Gilliam says. Gilliam writes that the abortion rates among black women are part of the larger pictorial matter of disproportionately worse sexual and reproductive health outcomes compared with people from other races and that the solution causes of general health disparities among blacks, ar "manifold." There is a "long history of favouritism; lack of access to high caliber, affordable wellness care; likewise few educational and professional opportunities; unequal access to safe, clean neighborhoods; and, for some African-Americans, a lingering distrust of the medical community," she adds.
Gilliam writes that as a bleak woman, a physician and a generative health specialist, she sees "on a daily basis the real life consequences of unequal access to skillful health charge," adding that is wherefore she "strongly believe[s] that those professing fear for the well-being of African-American women have an obligation to put the issue of abortion in its proper context and to support evidence-based policies that would have a positive impact."
According to Gilliam, "there ar no gentle solutions to these coordination compound challenges." However, she writes that policies that could make an immediate shock are up "sexual health literacy," support of comprehensive sex training programs all over abstinence-only programs, and empowering black women to bettor plan their pregnancies. Gilliam also says that "proved policies" include boosting financial backing for Title X programs, expanding Medicaid eligibility for family provision services and supporting working parents through paid fed up leave, subsidised child caution and low-cost health insurance.
Gilliam writes her challenge to antiabortion advocates is to "stop throwing out inflammatory terms like genocide and instead channel their considerable energies and resources into supporting policies that abbreviate the pauperization for abortion." She concludes, "Let's get serious around helping women and their families, including women in the African-American community" (Gilliam, Philadelphia Inquirer, 8/10).
Reprinted with kind permit from hypertext transfer protocol://www.nationalpartnership.org. You can vista the entire Daily Women's Health Policy Report, hunting the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Daily Women's Health Policy Report is a exempt service of the National Partnership for Women & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.
� 2008 The Advisory Board Company. All rights reserved.
More info
