Alabama Birth Equity Initiative 

The Alabama Birth Equity Initiative is a coalition of four organizations working to translate community needs into proactive policies that eliminate care gaps and strengthen the birth justice ecosystem in Northern Alabama. In partnership with NIRH, the Birth Justice Policy Lab in Alabama will lay the groundwork for a policy campaign to directly increase access to quality birth care, centering the voices, self-identified needs, and lived experiences of Black birthing people in the Deep South.  

The four organizations in this year’s Birth Justice Policy Lab are:  

Alabama Birth Center 

Alabama Birth Center (ABC) in Huntsville is North Alabama’s first free-standing birth center, led by a majority-Black team of birth workers dedicated to providing quality, culturally affirming, and comprehensive maternity care. ABC also offers essential health services such as pregnancy confirmation, low-cost birth control, STD/STI testing, free Plan B, and hormonal birth control without a pelvic exam. As Alabama faces some of the worst maternal health outcomes in the nation—particularly for Black birthing people—ABC is committed to helping close the gaps in care across the state’s maternal health deserts. 

Chocolate Milk Mommies 

Chocolate Milk Mommies (CMM) employs culturally sensitive approaches, tailored to the unique needs of Black women, to offer education and assistance to Black birthing people and parents who seek to breastfeed, and works directly with health care providers to adopt a more inclusive and supportive approach to Black women’s health. With their knowledge, community work, and partnerships, the organization continues to push towards the ultimate goal of decreasing barriers that lead to substantial maternal and infant mortality/morbidity rates that affect Black birthing families disproportionately.

Margins: Women Helping Black Women 

Margins: Women Helping Black Women (Margins) offers an intimate understanding of the unique challenges and needs faced by Black women, girls, and families because they sit at intersectional social locations, supporting survivors of domestic violence, immigrants, people experiencing food insecurity, and people interfacing with the police state, incarceration and Child Protective Services.

Yellowhammer Fund 

Yellowhammer Fund (YHF) works to ensure that every person can make decisions about their body and future – free from shame, coercion, or state control. In addition to mutual aid and community care programming, like YHF’s Abortion Fund and Hotline, their work includes civic engagement, coalition building, and advocacy. Through mutual aid, community education, policy advocacy, and direct support, YHF meets people’s real needs and advances Reproductive Justice in Alabama and across the Deep South.