Collision of Crises: The Triple Threat to Reproductive and Maternal Health Care

The United States’ Black maternal health crisis is the result of complex and overlapping factors, from barriers to accessing comprehensive reproductive health care to exposure to harmful social and economic determinants of health and historical, multigenerational gendered racism.

This brief illustrates the dangerous collision of policies that target and criminalize reproductive health with neoliberal economic policies that have disproportionately harmed Black women and their families. It is critical we understand how these socioeconomic changes have made women even more vulnerable in the post-Dobbs landscape. Restoring and ultimately expanding reproductive health and rights will require not only reversing these draconian anti-choice policies but also reshaping the broader health landscape to ensure high-quality, affordable, and culturally sensitive care for all.