Commentary

Want to Solve the Maternal Health Care Crisis? Listen to Black Birth Workers

April Valentine arrived at Centinela Hospital in Inglewood, Calif., on January 9 to give birth. Valentine, 31, had selected Centinela because she would be under the care of a Black woman physician. In the weeks leading up to her delivery, she had written on an affirmation board messages like “I will not have any complications” and “I will have a healthy baby girl,” The LAist reported in February. But she died the day after giving birth, via an emergency C-section. She never got the chance to meet her daughter.

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Eve Ensler Is Wrong That for Women and Trayvon Martin, ‘Our Struggles Are One’

Ensler's letter to Martin was not the right place to push an agenda about a campaign to end violence against women, especially without first acknowledging the fear many people are taught to feel about men of color—a fear that is just as present in the women’s movement as it is in each of the United States of America.

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