New York: Europe and the Arabs
The United Nations Population Fund has warned that women and girls of African descent face a "systemic and historical pattern" of racial abuse in the health sector in countries around the world, putting them at increased risk of dying in childbirth. According to the United Nations news bulletin, of which we received a copy on Thursday morning
"The scourge of racism continues for black women and girls in the Americas, many of whom are descendants of victims of slavery," said Natalia Kanem, Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
She added:
Too often, according to Dr. Kanem, “African women and girls are mistreated and abused, their needs are not taken seriously, and their families are shattered by the death of a family member in childbirth. Justice and equality will only be achieved when our healthcare systems look in the demands of these women and provide them with respectful and compassionate care.”

From abuse to denial of care
According to the United Nations Population Fund, the abuse that women of African descent face when receiving healthcare ranges from verbal and physical abuse to denial of quality care and refusal of pain relief.
As a result, they face increased complications during pregnancy and delayed interventions, often resulting in death.
These findings are reported in the Maternal Health of Women and Girls of African Descent in the Americas Report, which was prepared in collaboration with the Pan American Health Organization, UN agencies, UNICEF, UN Women and other partners.
The report also noted that women of African descent suffer disproportionate levels of abuse in health settings, some of which is based on unscientific and racist beliefs that date back to the slavery era and are still present in medical training practices.

The most "extreme" inequality in the United States
According to the report, this kind of inequality is most acute in the United States, where black women and girls are three times more likely to die in childbirth or within six weeks of giving birth than women of non-African descent.
Black maternal mortality also persists regardless of their income and education levels, with maternal mortality among African American college graduates still 1.6 times higher than among white women with less than a high school diploma.
In the broader region of the Americas, where there are an estimated 209 million people of African descent, only 11 of the 35 countries collect maternal health data broken down by ethnicity.

A call to address racist thought
To address this situation and save lives, UNFPA urges governments to collect and analyze robust health data disaggregated by race and ethnicity.
It also called on medical schools to address racist ideology in training curricula and called on hospitals to put in place policies to end the physical and verbal abuse that harms women and girls of African descent.