The dread many Black Americans feel about Donald Trump’s triumph in the 2024 presidential election isn’t misplaced: He organized his reelection campaign against Vice President Kamala Harris around revenge — around how he and his allies can inflict the greatest amount of suffering on vulnerable groups and on those he considers enemies. Making things worse, […]
Health
Posted inAir Pollution, Health, Maternal Health
Toxic Air and a Maternal Mortality Crisis in America’s Steel Town
This series was produced as part of the Pulitzer Center’s StoryReach U.S. Fellowship. Kimmie Gordon sat in her car, watching the sky darken as she waited for her 15-year-old son, Kaleb, to finish football practice. It is one of five sports her teenager plays despite living with chronic asthma. Over an hour stretched on, but […]
Posted inHealth, Health Equity, Maternal Health
The Post-Dobbs Reality for Black Maternal and Infant Health
To reproductive justice activist Renee Bracey Sherman, theirs are the forgotten names. Women like Amber Thurman, a 28-year-old medical assistant from Georgia, who suffered a rare complication from a medication abortion in August 2022 and died after waiting 20 hours for an emergency surgery to remove fetal tissue from her body. Thurman’s physicians worried that […]
Posted inMaternal Health, Partner Content, Rural Issues
Maternity Care in Rural Areas Is in Crisis. Can More Doulas Help?
This article was published by KFF Health News. When Bristeria Clark went into labor with her son in 2015, her contractions were steady at first. Then, they stalled. Her cervix stopped dilating. After a few hours, doctors at Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital in Albany, Georgia, prepped Clark for an emergency cesarean section. It wasn’t the […]
Posted inHealth, Health Equity, Partner Content, Rural Issues
Rural Communities of Color Across the U.S. Find New Ways to Get the Health Care They Need
Haywood Park Community Hospital was the closest hospital for many in Brownsville, Tennessee, a rural city in the western part of the state. Some residents believe it kept their loved ones alive. But others in this majority-Black city said they drove to a hospital miles away or skipped care completely. The facility eventually closed in […]
Posted inHealth Equity, News, Partner Content, Politics & Policy
Medical Schools Face New Obstacle in Push to Train More Black Doctors
Originally published by KFF Health News. JACKSON, Miss. — Jerrian Reedy was 9 when his father was admitted to the hospital in Hattiesburg, about two hours northeast of New Orleans, after sustaining three gunshot wounds. Reedy recalled visiting his dad in the intensive care unit that summer in 2009, even though children weren’t typically permitted […]
Posted inMental Health
Morgan Farley’s Family Never Stopped Looking For Her. Now She’s Back Home.
Morgan Farley is home. For two months, her father, sister, and friends were relentless in their search. They took to the streets of Chicago, social media, and locator apps to find her. And earlier this month, Morgan safely returned to the home she shares with her father. “Morgan made it home a couple weeks ago. […]
Posted inHealth, News, Politics & Policy, Reproductive Health
The Black Reproductive Justice Leaders in a Post-Dobbs Era
Unknowns loom, and uncertainty lingers. It’s been two years since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, striking down the federal right to an abortion, limiting access in many states, and potentially exacerbating disparities in who’s most likely to suffer severe complications in maternal health and die. Women wonder whether their doctors should know […]
Posted inHealth
This Innovation Could Revolutionize Kidney Care of Black Patients
When the news hit this spring that the first genetically modified pig kidney was successfully transplanted into a 62-year-old Black man in Massachusetts, medical and health communities celebrated. It lifted hopes about saving lives amid donation shortages — and opened a door of hope for reducing the health disparities that persist within organ failures and […]
Posted inClimate Change, Extreme Weather, Health, Maternal Health, Partner Content
‘How Did We Miss This for So Long?’: The Link Between Extreme Heat and Preterm Birth
This story was originally published by Grist. This story is part of the series “Expecting Worse: Giving Birth on a Planet in Crisis,” a collaboration between Grist, Vox, and The 19th that investigates how climate change impacts reproductive health — from menstruation to conception to birth. Sign up for Grist’s weekly newsletter here. When Rupa Basu was […]
