Ten years after Black Maternal Health Week first sounded the alarm, Black women in the United States remain three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white women. Even more damning, health experts say 84% of those deaths are preventable.
That reality has transformed what should be a public health emergency into something more troubling: a test of whether America values Black women enough to save them.
Jennifer Driver, Senior Director of Reproductive Freedom & Health Equity at the State Innovation Exchange, told The Black Wall Street Times the worsening crisis is not the result of mystery or medical inevitability. It is the consequence of choices — “functioning as designed. For a system to be broken, it had to have been fixed,” Driver said when asked whether the maternal health system is broken.
Her assessment lands at a moment when Black maternal health advocates say awareness alone is no longer enough. A decade after the campaign began, they are demanding action.
A Crisis Fueled by Policy
Driver said the nation has long known the scale of the problem. Yet governments at every level have failed to respond with the urgency required.
“We have known for a very long time that Black women are still three times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause, and 84% of those deaths are preventable,” she said.
She pointed to hospital closures, shrinking access to maternity care, and policies that restrict reproductive healthcare as key drivers of the crisis.
Research has shown that states with abortion bans often face worse maternal health outcomes. Advocates argue Black women, who already face disparities in care, are especially vulnerable when options narrow and providers disappear.
Since the fall of Roe v. Wade, Driver said risks have intensified across the South, where many Black families already faced barriers to healthcare access.
“Roe was never enough. Roe was the floor,” she said, arguing that the rollback of reproductive protections worsened already dangerous conditions for Black mothers.
Congressional Clash Highlights Ongoing Divide
The national disconnect over Black maternal health played out again Thursday on Capitol Hill during a tense exchange between Summer Lee and Robert F. Kennedy Jr..
Lee pressed Kennedy on why Black women remain three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes and challenged what she described as unserious responses to a deadly crisis.
When Lee asked whether broad maternal health improvements were enough to solve race-based disparities, Kennedy repeatedly pointed to general maternal health initiatives rather than Black-specific outcomes.
Lee pushed back, arguing that unequal outcomes require targeted solutions.
“Black maternal health still has worse outcomes than others,” Lee said.
She also criticized efforts to strip words like “Black” from funding language, asking how government can solve a crisis affecting Black women if it refuses to name them.
The exchange underscored a central tension in the national debate: whether policymakers are willing to confront racial disparities directly—or prefer race-neutral responses to race-specific harm.
Oklahoma Advocates Say Bias Still Costs Lives
The crisis is not only national. Advocates in Oklahoma say Black maternal health disparities remain urgent closer to home.
Omare Jimmerson, Executive Director at Oklahoma Birth Equity Initiative said awareness has grown over the last decade, but progress remains uneven.
“The movement has caught fire and spread across the country,” Jimmerson said. “But this too shows that advancements in a country built on our backs were never meant for us.”
She said many forms of medical racism today appear less visible than in past generations—but remain deadly.
Unchecked bias in patient charts, dismissing Black patients as “drug seeking,” and persistent myths that Black people feel less pain continue to shape care, she said.
“Knowing that race is a social construct but still believing that Black skin is thicker and can withstand more pain—it’s racism,” Jimmerson said.
She added that Black Maternal Health Week is also about honoring Black joy, ancestral midwives, doulas, and mothers whose stories were ignored.
“Our stories, our strength,” she said, referencing this year’s theme. “We honor the moments of Black joy that come with bringing life into the world.”
When Autonomy Is Taken in the Delivery Room
Among the most disturbing examples Driver raised were recent cases in Florida, first reported by ProPublica, in which Black women in labor were forced into cesarean sections after judges intervened remotely through Zoom hearings.
In one case, Driver said, a woman who wanted to avoid another C-section after a prior hemorrhage had her wishes overruled while in active labor.
“All of her autonomy was removed,” Driver said. “Others got to decide how she would give birth.”
She described such cases as more than isolated incidents.
“It is obstetric violence, full stop,” Driver said.
For many Black women, advocates say childbirth fears now extend beyond medical complications to questions of dignity, consent, and bodily control.
Maternity Care Deserts and Vanishing Access
The crisis is not confined to hospitals. Across the country, maternity care deserts continue to expand—areas where pregnant people have little or no nearby access to obstetric providers, birthing centers, or labor and delivery units.
Driver said closures have hit Black communities especially hard.
Over the last several decades, birthing centers in majority Black counties have closed at higher rates than in white communities, she said, pushing prenatal care and safe delivery options farther out of reach. In Georgia, Black midwives have challenged restrictions that limit their ability to practice in areas already lacking providers.
For families without reliable transportation, paid leave, or childcare, a long drive to the nearest provider can become another dangerous barrier.
Black Women Leading Solutions
Even amid federal inaction, Driver said Black women lawmakers and advocates are proving that progress is possible.
In Pennsylvania, lawmakers — led by members of the state’s Black Maternal Health Caucus and supported by House Speaker Joanna McClinton — helped secure $5 million for a Maternal Health Fund and $25 million for maternal health programs in their state’s budget. Driver also highlighted states expanding Medicaid doula coverage and maternal care packages.
Doulas often provide emotional support, advocacy, and guidance before, during, and after birth. Supporters say access to doulas can improve outcomes and help patients navigate medical systems that too often dismiss Black women’s concerns.
“We are not waiting on the federal government,” Driver said. “We are going to mobilize in states and put forth policies and pass legislation to actually save Black women.”
That shift reflects a broader reality: while Washington stalls, statehouses are becoming the front lines of maternal justice.
What Justice for Black Mothers Looks Like
Driver said true justice extends beyond surviving childbirth.
It means Black women having full control over healthcare decisions. It means being treated with dignity during pregnancy and delivery. It means raising children in safe communities free from violence, instability, and preventable harm.
“Black women are not prioritized in this country,” Driver said.
Ten years into Black Maternal Health Week, that statement remains an indictment. But it is also a call to action.
The women leading this movement are not asking the nation to discover the problem. They are asking it to stop ignoring the solutions.
For Black families, advocates say the question is no longer whether America knows what to do. It is whether America is willing to do it.
