Georgia has one of the worst maternal mortality rates in the country, according to data from the National Center for Health Statistics: Black women are twice as likely to die from pregnancy than a white woman.
Systemic barriers to health care access and social marginalization are just some of the reasons public health experts cite as the causes of this longstanding problem.
One of the first steps to changing those outcomes according to Bajha Jordan, the youth coordinator at SisterSong, a reproductive justice nonprofit based in Atlanta, is changing public policy around reproductive health care.
Earlier this fall, Jordan and Nykia Greene-Young, professor and domestic policy coordinator at Clark Atlanta University’s W.E.B Du Bois Southern Center for Studies in Public Policy launched a yearlong program to train young Black women to become community leaders who can influence and change reproductive policy and address maternal health outcomes in Georgia and across the country.
“A lot of these policies were written by adults, oftentimes white men, and are rooted in white supremacy,” Jordan told Capital B Atlanta. “Being able to create a platform for our young people to be able to talk about how these policies impact them is what we need in order to change the landscape of reproductive outcomes for our Black communities.”
“A lot of these policies were written by adults, oftentimes white men, and are rooted in white supremacy.”
Bajha Jordan, SisterSong youth coordinator
At the start of the semester, Jordan and Greene-Young began reaching out to female students at the Atlanta University Center. In September, they held their first session of the Reproductive Justice Ambassador Program: Leaders for Liberation with their inaugural cohort.
Greene-Young said the majority of the 13 CAU sophomores and juniors participating in the program are primarily political science majors or minors, many of whom she has taught before.
“Political science is very male dominated … but we teach Black women in politics and Black feminism, so when we get to that and into reproductive justice, they see themselves and they’re being seen,” she said.
Kyla Adams, a 20-year-old sociology major and political science minor from Detroit, who also interns at the DuBois Center, told Capital B Atlanta she’s already putting what she’s learning in the program to use.
“One of my friends, she’s pregnant, so a lot of the things that I’m learning from the reproductive justice program, I’m able to relate to her and help her,” she said, referring to the sessions where the students learned about natural healing remedies from a herbalist and another where they heard from a doula.
After graduation, Adams said she hopes to become an educator to share what she’s learned with even more people.
“I want to be able to share that [knowledge] with other young Black women and help them understand what’s going on with their reproductive system, because I know that’s not something that’s frequently talked about within our community,” Adams said.
During their bi-monthly meetings, Jordan and Greene-Young alternate between presenting different topics related to policy and reproductive health care. Guest speakers offer the students insight into different perspectives and to make the connections between reproductive justice and other forms of health care.
“You have six weeks until you can’t legally get an abortion here [in Georgia], and that doesn’t sit right with me.”
Leila Kurugu, Clark Atlanta University junior
“Clark Atlanta is majority female … but we don’t have any free or reduced-cost sanitary [napkins] or tampons on campus. So we’re working with [SisterSong] on trying to get that right now,” said Leila Kurugu, a junior political science major and Africana women’s studies minor with a concentration in Black feminism, as well as a student liaison with the DuBois Center.
The 19-year-old from Seattle, by way of Nairobi, Kenya, told Capital B Atlanta that after she completes the program and graduates, she wants to get more involved in reproductive justice at the state level.
“You have six weeks until you can’t legally get an abortion here [in Georgia], and that doesn’t sit right with me,” she said.
Greene-Young and Jordan are already planning a student trip to the state Capitol next semester after the legislative session begins the second week of January to meet with lawmakers and practice advocating their beliefs to elected officials.
“We’ve both facilitated lessons [this semester] so that the students will be ready for the Capitol in the spring,” Greene-Young said.
She and Jordan are excited for Kurugu, Adams, and the other students to see policymaking in action and be able to use their voices to advocate for the issues they believe in. They are also preparing the students for the Black Women and Public Policy in the South Symposium that CAU and the Du Bois Center host in March.
“We are setting them up to do a panel on reproductive justice and what it looks like from the lens of young Black women,” Greene-Young said.
Jordan plans to continue the program next fall and for as many years as SisterSong and the DuBois Center want to continue with the partnership.
“I remember one student saying, ‘This is the one place I can actually have this very open and honest conversation that helps me in my life and [helps me] understand what’s happening in my community more,” she recalled.
Next year, they also hope to invite back students who couldn’t fit the bi-monthly meetings into their schedule.
“It was [past] time to have created this space for our young people, because reproductive justice spaces for youth do not exist, especially in the South,” Jordan said.
