he grief-stricken face of the parent is everywhere in moments like this, these too frequent moments when a young person loses his or her life to the senseless, ceaseless fear and hatred that black bodies arouse. It seems to matter little what that body is doing at the time it’s mowed down.
Racial and socioeconomic inequities are driving a maternal health crisis for women of color and immigrant women, many of them poor.
“…those who are most at risk of violence at the hands of the state (or with its complicity) do not make the respectability cut: sex workers, black and Latina trans women, immigrants, queer folks, or just kids who weren’t gonna go to college and were doing whatever they had to do to survive in underground and criminalized economies. Their deaths are thought of as inevitable at best, deserved at worst.
The word ‘dying’ delivers a chilling echo in the teen’s voice. The young woman, Amber*, reminds us that Gabby didn’t have to meet such a horrible death if she were able to access safe healthcare – if there weren’t laws barring her access to care from a licensed, quality abortion provider.
When states have passed laws requiring to doctors to lie to their patients about abortion’s risks, can you really blame the public for being confused?