Reproductive Health Challanges that Women of Color Face

I ended my last post with the following question; why it is that woman of color are the ones facing the struggles of accessing reproductive health and practicing their reproductive rights? I did more research on the school’s online library and came across an article about reproductive rights activism. In this article Gerber has an endnote with the following; “Women of color have different histories of reproductive oppression. For example, prioritizing the killing of women and children was part of a strategy to conquer and destroy Native Americans. During slavery, African American women faced rape, forced childbearing, and the destruction of their families. More recently, the right of women to have children has been undermined through punitive policies such as welfare reform, and coercive sterilization and the criminalization for their pregnancies.” This makes me believe that although these issues have seem to have happened some decades ago, I feel that women are still facing barriers when it comes to health care services, insurance, cost, language and locations to these services.

I receive weekly e-newsletters from Lorena Garcia, Executive Director with Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights (COLOR); a few weeks ago I received one where she states that “Latinas have the highest rate of women without health insurance, and therefore, seeing a provider and accessing birth control is not an option for many women”. Although these two sources touch on the issues women of different races have been going through for many years, I can see how they relate as it affects their reproductive rights and health. With the research that I have done so far I find that many factors  effect only women of color, for example as a Latina I am concern on the legal immigration status of many women and how it impediments them on accessing basic health insurance.  Also, many of the jobs that oriental women practice, for example the nail salons, do not offer health insurance. I also see how many minority families live in the rural communities, how are women racing their families in these areas accessing their own basic health care?

 

Works Cited

Fried, Marlene Gerger. “Reproductive Rights Activism In The Post-Roe Era.” American Journal Of Public Health 103.1 (2013): 10-14. Academic Search Premier. Web. 15 Apr. 2013.

Lyn M. Paltrow, “Roe v Wade and the New Jane Crow: Reproductive Rights in the Age of Mass Incarceration,” American Journal of Public Health, 102, no. 1 (2013); 17-21.