08/27/2026
In a state where the near-total abortion ban sits alongside the systematic dismantling of rural healthcare, where more than one-third of counties have no obstetric care and the state has refused to expand Medicaid, basic reproductive care has become a matter of geography, income, and luck.
Birth equity is not simply everyone receiving the same care.
It means removing the barriers that make race, income, geography, insurance status, and gender identity predictors of who receives quality care, who survives pregnancy and birth.
Birth equity asks us to look beyond the delivery room.
It includes access to trusted providers, culturally affirming care, transportation, safe housing, food, economic stability, postpartum support, bodily autonomy, and freedom from punishment and coercion. Birth equity means Black women and birthing people hold meaningful power in the policies, systems, and institutions that shape our lives.
