Connecting the Dots: Reproductive Equity, Family Regulation, & Black Maternal Health
nclrights.orgBrooklyn’s Family Court was rife with gossip during my time representing children, teens, and young adults involved with the family regulation[1] (also known as “child welfare”) system.
One rumor concerned youths living in institutions who had removed their own IUDs, hoping to become pregnant. Its tellers’ tones were contemptuous toward the young people who had risked their health in pursuit of riskier pregnancies that would destroy their futures.
I winced in imagined pain and went on to the next case; immersed in the system, I did not think to question that framing. I have questions now: Had those young people given informed, uncoerced consent to the state-funded[2] insertion of IUDs?
What were their reasons for choosing self-retrieval? Had they experienced mistreatment[3] by doctors? How long would they have waited for care?
