“We Can’t Wait”: Lessons from the New Abortion Landscape
Torn Roe V Wade newspaper headline in red and blue on the US Constitution with the United States Supreme Court in background. Credit: Zimmytws via Getty Images.
Three years ago, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Since then, Black women have taken reproductive health into their own hands.
By Anissa Durham
Since the Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade decision guaranteeing the right to abortion three years ago, the news about abortion rights has been mostly doom and gloom. Women have died in states with the strictest bans, infant deaths have increased, and more women are facing criminal punishment for accessing abortion care.
But we spoke with Dr. Raegan McDonald-Mosely, CEO of Power to Decide, in an exclusive interview about how Black women can still feel empowered despite continuous attacks to reproductive health care. Here’s three things she says we’ve learned in the last three years — including the few bright spots in the otherwise grim abortion landscape.
Photo of Dr. Raegan McDonald-Mosely, practicing OBGYN and abortion provider. Courtesy of Power to Decide.
Health literacy is key
Access to information has never been easier: everyone has a computer or smartphone, and we have Google at our fingertips. But with the rise of disinformation in reproductive health care spaces, it can be challenging for women in need of an abortion to find fact-based information.
One reliable tool folks can use is abortionfinder.org; the site houses one of the largest databases of verified abortion providers in the country. McDonald-Mosely herself is a font of knowledge: she has a regular social media series called #AskDrRaegan, in which she answers questions about sex, birth control, and reproductive health care.
With abortion bans and restrictions in more than half the country, however, the number of crisis pregnancy centers — fake clinics with the sole goal of convincing people not to have an abortion — continues to rise.
Between 2015 and 2019, more than $4 billion in revenue went to nearly 1,300 organizations that filed taxes and are considered CPC services. Currently, CPCs outnumber abortion clinics by a ratio of 3 to 1.
“Many of these centers have tried to shame people into continuing pregnancies, even when they want an abortion,” McDonald-Mosely says. “And they give a lot of wrong information about the risks of abortion, which has led people to delay care or not receive care at all.”
“People really have to consider their source if they’re seeing information that doesn’t seem right or has language that seems overly religious, condescending, or stigmatizing — this is a red flag, she says. “You may need to consider other sources of information about abortion.”
Access to abortion care is still possible
Mifepristone and misoprostol, the two pills used in medication abortions, are banned in 14 states; laws in those states also prohibit telehealth services and prohibit mail delivery of abortion medication. However, it’s still possible to access abortion care in states that are not under a ban.
“The number of folks getting abortions is not going down, it’s going up,” McDonald-Mosely says. “Bans and restrictions do not actually decrease the amount of care people get; it only makes it less safe for people.”
Black women still have power
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, Black women ages 18 to 49 are more likely to live in states with abortion bans and restrictions than their white peers. Even prior to the abortion ban, Black women were already 3 times more likely than white women to die from a pregnancy-related cause than white women.
But post-Roe, state abortion restrictions have contributed to maternal death rates.
McDonald-Mosely, a practicing OBGYN, says it’s critical to elevate and amplify information so Black women know where they can access care.
For example, three different organizations — In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda, SisterSong, and Indigenous Women Rising — are working to facilitate access to reproductive health care.
“We can’t remain in doom and despair,” she says. “And we can’t wait for folks to save us.”
In the last election cycle, voters in a growing number of states approved ballot measures that rolled back abortion bans or guaranteed access to the procedure. McDonald-Mosely says those outcomes reflect Americans’ support for access to abortion. But she says it’s also important to shift the narrative and end cultural stigma that harms women who are seeking an abortion.
“We need to normalize conversations about abortion access, specifically in the Black community and in faith-based circles, where oftentimes these things are not centered,” she says. “Don’t we want to have a world where everyone can decide when and whether to have children and if they need an abortion to do so with dignity?”