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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Article
Infertility and Race: A Burden on Black Mothers and Black Babies
Author(s)
Desirée Simone Gould
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DOI:10.17265/2159-5542/2018.10.003
Affiliation(s)
Spelman College, Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
ABSTRACT
Reproductive justice, a
term coined by Loretta Ross, is defined as
the fight for women to have the right not to have
children, and for women to have the right to have children. Inspired by this
theory, I examined factors that may interfere with women’s right to have
children. In this study, I
center black women experiencing infertility in the
United States and compare black women’s rate of
infertility to the rate of infertility among white women. While there are many causes for
infertility, health disparities
in the United States are contributing to large groups of black women experiencing
infertility at a significantly higher rate than white women. Women of color have
higher rates of infertility
and this is not simply a biological cause; various factors are reinforcing to this disparity.
The factors I focus on are: social and cultural aspects, socioeconomic status,
and the medical reasons why more black women have greater occurrences of
infertility than white women do. I analyze this a combination of factors and observe
how they work together to create this disparity. My research findings concluded
that women’s race and cultural influences, class, and prior health had
significant impacts on causes of infertility, diagnosis of infertility, those
who sought treatment for infertility, and women who had successful births after
treatment.
KEYWORDS
infertility, health disparities
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