Women of color are among the disadvantaged populations that are at a disproportionately higher risk of pregnancy-related deaths before the overturned decision, now it is estimated that these rates will rise to over 20% (Gostin, 2022). Despite this decision affecting all women, women of color have added barriers affecting their reproductive health, such as “immigration status, ability, gender identity, carceral status, sexual orientation, and age” and unequal access to reproductive health care (Ross, 2017). Other concerns that affect women of color include “systematic sterilization of women of color and immigrants, punitive welfare policies, environmental racism, race-based immigration policies, homophobia, and mass incarceration -- all of which have affected marginalized communities' abilities to make decisions about their reproduction, sexuality, and overall well-being” (“Women of Color Want Reproductive Justice, Not Just Abortion Rights. - Document - Gale in Context: Opposing Viewpoints,” 2021).
Reproductive oppression is, according to Ross (2017), “genocide or ‘reprocide’.” According to Leath et al. (2022), Black women are viewed as “hypersexualized jezebels and fraudulent welfare queens,” and this is the reason that people use to justify the “policing” of Black women’s reproductive abilities (Leath et al., 2022). Until these issues are addressed, women of color will continue to be three times more likely to die in childbirth, have children that are two to three times more likely to die, and remain oppressed (Gostin, 2022).
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