Increased Sexual Education Among Black Community, Better Family Planning Policies Could Improve Reproductive Health Of Black Women, Opinion Piece

Main Category: Sexual Health / STDs
Also Included In: Women's Health / Gynecology
Article Date: 14 Aug 2008 - 12:00 PDT

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Recent opinion pieces and other statements that imply racism is behind higher numbers of black women having abortions miss "the point and distrac[t] from the real issue: the persistent health disparities faced by women, and men, in the African-American community," Melissa Gilliam, an associate professor of ob-gyn at the University of Chicago and chair of the Guttmacher Institute, writes in a Philadelphia Inquirer opinion piece. According to Gilliam, black women have higher abortion rates than whites because they have higher instances of unintended pregnancy. In addition, blacks often have worse sexual and reproductive health outcomes than other groups in part because of a history of discrimination, lack of access to care and other issues, she says. There is "no need to resort to far-flung conspiracy theories to explain the higher abortion rate among black women," she writes.

She adds that "those professing concern 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." There are a "number of specific steps policymakers can take right now that could dramatically improve the sexual and reproductive health of African-Americans and Americans in general," she writes.

She calls for comprehensive sex education, help for black women to better plan their pregnancies, increasing funding for Title X family planning programs, expanding Medicaid eligibility for family planning services and supporting working parents through paid sick leave, subsidized child care and affordable health insurance.

Gilliam concludes, "My challenge to antiabortion activists is to stop throwing around inflammatory terms like genocide and instead channel their considerable energies and resources into supporting policies that reduce the need for abortion. Let's get serious about helping women and their families, including women in the African-American community" (Gilliam, Philadelphia Inquirer, 8/10).

A new Guttmacher policy analysis that finds that abortion rates among racial and ethnic minorities, especially blacks and Hispanics, are higher than rates among white women and are directly related to their higher rates of unintended pregnancy is available online.

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

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