Advancing Birth Justice

All people deserve to be able to choose if, when, and how to start and grow a family, supported by safe, accessible, and culturally appropriate reproductive health care. Systemic discrimination inside and outside the medical system has contributed to a pregnancy-related health crisis; currently, Black people and Indigenous people are respectively three and two times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white people. Abortion bans are contributing to these inequities by threatening the health of pregnant people everywhere.

NIRH is working in Illinois, Louisiana, New Jersey, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia to develop and pass birth justice policy agendas that address the multi-faceted causes of the pregnancy-related health crisis, particularly among Black communities.