Racism Runs Through It: Examining The Sexual And Reproductive Health Experience Of Black Women In The South.

Few studies have illustrated how racism influences Black women's use of reproductive health care services. This article presents findings of a collaborative study conducted by a research team and a reproductive justice organization to understand Black women's concerns with sexual and reproductive health services. The qualitative research was conducted with Black women living in Georgia and North Carolina, using a community-based participatory research approach. Themes were developed from participant accounts that highlight how racism, both structural and individual, influenced their reproductive health care access, utilization, and experience. Structural racism affected participants' finances and led some to forgo care or face barriers to obtaining care. Individual racism resulted in some women electing to receive care only from same-race medical providers. These findings suggest a need for policies and practices that address structural barriers to reproductive health care access and improve the reproductive health experience of Black women.

Sociodemographic and Service Use Characteristics of Abortion Fund Cases from Six States in the U.S. Southeast.

Abortion funds are key actors in mitigating barriers to abortion access, particularly in contexts where state-level abortion access restrictions are concentrated. Using 2017-2019 case management data from a regional abortion fund in the southeastern U.S., we described the sociodemographic and service use characteristics of cases overall (n = 9585) and stratified by state of residence (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Tennessee). Overall, cases represented people seeking abortion fund assistance who predominately identified as non-Hispanic Black (81%), 18-34 years of age (84%), publicly or uninsured (87%), having completed a high school degree or some college (70%), having one or more children (77%), and as Christian (58%). Most cases involved an in-state clinic (81%), clinic travel distance under 50 miles (63%), surgical abortion (66%), and pregnancy under 13 weeks' gestation (73%), with variation across states. The median abortion fund contribution pledge was $75 (interquartile range (IQR): 60-100), supplementing median caller contributions of $200 (IQR: 40-300). These data provide a unique snapshot of a population navigating disproportionate, intersecting barriers to abortion access, and abortion fund capacity for social care and science. Findings can inform abortion fund development, data quality improvement efforts, as well as reproductive health, rights and justice advocacy, policy, and research.