It’s Black Maternal Health Week 2026—the ninth annual week designated for amplifying the perspectives of Black pregnant people and bringing awareness to their high death rates before, during, and after birth. 

At Rewire News Group, these issues are core to our mission. Black women launched the reproductive justice movement; we cover Black maternal health year-round. This roundup features some of our recent reporting on Black maternal mortality, access to health-care, and birth justice.

Hundreds of thousands of Black women left the labor force in droves in 2025, in part due to mass layoffs. 

Writer Emma Akpan was one of them. In November of that year, after she lost her job, she explained how unemployment reshaped the health-care options of Black women like her. Losing private insurance, for example, can limit a person’s reproductive health-care choices.

“My old gynecologist does not take Medicaid,” Akpan wrote. “I searched for a new one that provided shame-free medical care and accepted Medicaid, [but] many of them were in towns…about 30 minutes from where I live. … I knew I couldn’t be the only one in this predicament.” 

In addition to facing higher unemployment, Black women also have higher rates of infertility. Yet Black women are less likely to pursue IVF........

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