Statement on the Supreme Court overturning Roe v Wade

In the wake of the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade, USBC’s Anti-Racism Institute of the Southwest (ARTI) urges that states, instead of passing new laws to police the bodies of pregnant women, should immediately promote new ways to improve women’s reproductive health – especially the shamefully-neglected health outcomes of poor women and women of color.

Looked at through the lens of race, the Court’s decision simply extends our nation’s long history of over-policing the bodies of those we wish to keep powerless.

ARTI calls out the hypocrisy of states that are laser-focused on forcing women to give birth while ignoring pre-natal and post-partum healthcare.

There is nothing "pro life" about a healthcare system in which childbirth is fourteen times more lethal than induced abortion among all American women.*

There is nothing "pro life" about a healthcare system in which black women are three times as likely to die in childbirth than white women.**

If we really care about the unborn, we are morally bound to care about the social and economic conditions that create such lopsided outcomes, both before and after a child’s emergence into the world.

There is a better way to care for the unborn, their mothers, and their loved ones than rushing to enact laws that turn women’s bodies into crime scenes.

The way forward is to make healthcare more accessible and affordable for all; and to recognize the implicit racism in a health care system that neglects poor women and children – a system that is especially crushing for poor women and children of color.

…

Sources:

*The comparative safety of legal induced abortion and childbirth in the United States - PubMed (nih.gov)

**Black women over 3x more likely to die in pregnancy, post partum, than white women - PRB.org