Too Many Black Lives are Lost in Hospitals
Medical Racism and its Impacts on the Black Woman
In this world, BIPOC women have to face obstacles that are already set in place for them in various components of their lives. You would assume that if someone is a pregnant woman and in need of assistance, they would go to the hospital to get a doctor’s help. However, the reality for many black women is that if they go into the hospital to give birth, their child or themself may never come back out alive. Racism is so ingrained in our country’s systems that even taking a trip to the hospital, a place that is meant to keep people alive and well, can be a life or death situation for a WOC. A term for this phenomenon is medical racism and it and it just indicates the discrimination and struggle people face in the healthcare field.
“The Dark Side of Birth Control” by Dorothy Roberts thoroughly explains how race impacts a persons’ experience with medical scenarios and illustrates how the eugenics movement had a large role to play in this. Eugenics is the theory that certain desirable traits are inheritable and can be taken to create a more “suitable” race of people. Many scientists, like Sir Francis Galton who coined the term eugenics, believed eugenics could produce the most superior people in future generations but this also meant that they thought people with less desirable traits should not be able to reproduce at all. With eugenics, supposedly each race or different group of people have different traits and some are better than others. This theory is dangerous because it justifies poor treatment of other races due to them being “scientifically” different.
“Racism also provided the theoretical framework for eugenic thinking. White Americans for over a centuries developed an understanding of the races as biologically distinct groups, marked by inherited attributes of inferiority and superiority.”
We see that eugenics only brought on more racism to the medical field because it allowed white doctors to treat BIPOC patients with less seriousness as they would a white patient. If they have scientific evidence that a race varies from them in genetic ways, that could lead to false dosages, misdiagnosis, and more. White doctors were literally being told in medical school and places of education that other races are biologically not the same as them which only furthers the ideas of superiority in their minds. White people thought that specific, “deviant” attributes were seen in Black people the most and, during those times, sterilization of Black people was a major issue. They thought that if Black people have these “lesser quality” traits, they should not be allowed to continue their bloodline onto the next generation. The women who were unfortunately sterilized had absolutely no say in what was happening to them because the white doctors were the ones in control. Later on in the 1970s, Black women were no longer being sterilized. However, white doctors were still performing procedures that were meant to control women’s reproductive organs and abilities without them agreeing to it.
“In most major teaching hospitals in New York City, it is unwritten policy to do elective hysterectomies on poor Black and Puerto Rican women, with minimal indications, to train residents.”
Even in a more accepting and progressive state, white doctors were still taking advantage of BIPOC women and basically used them as medical test dolls. Rather than treating the patients with respect and informing them of the surgery they were getting, the women were often not aware of the true nature of what was happening. These hysterectomies were done as a way to control their ability to give birth and usually solely because of the doctors racist beliefs. Plenty of them, because of eugenics, thought society and the government would be better off without unnecessary, extra children who would seemingly only have poor genes/traits to offer. Along with physically mutilating Black women without their consent, eugenic thinking was used as a means to justify slavery. Clearly, this was and unfortunately is still a huge racial problem in the medical field because if doctors believe other groups are different by nature, they are at risk of poor and cruel treatment.
We can see how recent of an issue medical racism is if we take a look at the numerous number of black women who have had complications or died from pregnancy and/or childbirth. In 2019, the CDC stated that black women are two to three times more likely to die from pregnancy related concerns than white women. The deaths of black women were broadcasted especially more clearly last year because the rates increased due to COVID. One woman, Amber Rose Isaac, was only 26 when she died after an emergency C-section in the Bronx. She had tweeted on April 17th, 2020 that she had a bad experience at the hospital and they called to tell her her blood platelet levels were low. She was induced and, since her blood was so thin, she died immediately once they cut her open. Despite knowing that Isaac’s count was small and her previous complaints, the hospital still decided to do a C-section in a hurry rather than take the time to figure out if there was any way to ensure safety for the mom and baby. This lack of precaution, disregard for her concerns and medical racism is what led to Amber’s untimely and sad death. She was not viewed as a priority and therefore not treated as such.
Another example of medical racism in the past year is 26 year old Sha-asia Washington who also died from a C-section at Woodhull hospital in Brooklyn in early July of 2020. She went in for a stress test on July 2nd and since she was past her due date, the hospital kept her and saw that her blood pressure was way too high. They decided to give her pitocin which induced her but led to her going into cardiac arrest and needing a C-section to keep the baby healthy. After her death, her relatives and other people had protests at the hospital on July 9th to get justice for Washington’s mistreatment. This is another instance in which white doctors didn’t take the needed time to make sure everything was stable and healthy enough for Washington to give birth. Had Washington or Isaac been white women, they would’ve received much better care and would more likely than not still be alive today.
Medical racism is a problem that BIPOC women face every single time they need to go to the hospital. Whether or not the individual doctors be blatantly racist, the medical information they were given and ways they treat WOC definitely are. Eugenics can certainly be named the reason there is injustice in the medical world for black women and others. White doctors in the 1900s were made to believe other races are naturally and genetically inferior to them and, not even in 2021, have we seen the changes we need to see. Black women should not have to consider death just because they want to be mothers. Hospitals and doctors have to take responsibility for participating in and promoting racist ideologies but this can only start once medical racism is acknowledged on a wider scale.