Reproductive Justice and Health Equity
To support women’s health and reproductive freedom, we focus on understanding the economic impacts of health access restrictions, our national maternal health crisis, and the racial disparities blocking health care access for people of color.
Birth Work Under Pressure: Supporting Black Midwives and Doulas Amid a Changing Landscape
Since the earliest days of the United States, Black birth workers have played a critical role in maternal health, delivering a level of care and joy Black women rarely find in the “institutional” medical system. However, because of numerous barriers, women of color represent [...]
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 [...]
Built for Our Survival: Reclaiming Black Birth from a History of Harm
This brief is the first in the Birthing While Black: The Urgent Fight for Maternal Health Reform Series by IWPR. Throughout this series, we will tell the story of how we got here: What are the roots of our health and economic systems? Why [...]
Abortion Bans Are Driving Away Young and Educated Workers
Abortion restrictions are not just limiting reproductive health care access—they are driving people away from states with abortion bans or severe restrictions. Recent IWPR research based on a survey of 10,000 adults found that 1 in 10—and 1 in 5 planning to have children [...]
