Following former President Donald Trump’s reelection over Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday, the Dallas-based reproductive justice organization The Afiya Center is voicing deep concerns about what what lies ahead.
For Marsha Jones, the center's founder, the election outcome represents a daunting reality that could further endanger Black maternal health and reproductive justice.
“The biggest disaster I think that not even the United States, but the world has seen,” she said.
The Afiya Center was founded in 2008 to address high rates of HIV among Black women. Over the years, its mission has expanded to provide reproductive health care resources, often in the face of political and social opposition.
Jones said the election results increased fears of Black maternal health issues and infant mortality rates. In a statement she noted it “increased the threat of criminalization for Black women seeking abortion care.”
Texas is among the worst states when it comes to maternal mortality, and Black women in the state die from pregnancy-related complications at about three times the rate of their white counterparts. A recent analysis from Johns Hopkins University found Texas’ infant mortality rate rose 12.9% between 2021 and 2022 compared to a 1.8% increase nationally following the state’s ban on most early-pregnancy abortions. A near-total ban on abortions went into effect in Texas after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.
As for now, the Afiya Center team is planning to navigate what the next four years will look like in areas like strengthening their relationship with the LGBTQ+ community, enhancing training for birth workers and seeking funding for critical services.
“When you live in a state like Texas, you really don't have a choice in the matter and so what is that going to look like?” Jones said.
The center, which is funded through donations and select grants, has always relied on community support. However, Jones said funders are more eager to give money to abortion support programs – like helping patients travel out of state for care – than to the center's maternal health programs for those forced to give birth.
With abortion access under constant threat, Jones says they’ll need to find new ways to fill the gap.
“We are going to have to be at the front of it now,” she said. “We're going to have to really lead on policies around that and advocating in a real loud way.”
Currently, Texans still have the legal option to travel out of state for abortion care, but Jones fears that it may change soon and plans to keep a close eye on the subject.
“We're going to have to do is continue to fight and to try and make sure that that's not legislation that will happen in the state of Texas,” she said.
Trump has said he wants to leave abortion rights up to individual states, but reproductive rights groups say there are other avenues to restricting abortion nationwide.
On top of these new concerns, last week Gov. Greg Abbott signed Executive Order 46, mandating Texas hospitals to ask patients for their immigration status. For the Afiya Center, this new policy adds another struggle for vulnerable communities they serve, including Black immigrants.
“I'm fearful that the lives of Black people will be our lives will be more devalued than they've ever been before,” said Jones.
Zara Amaechi is KERA’s Marjorie Welch Fitts Louis fellow covering race and social justice. Got a tip? Email Zara at zamaechi@kera.org. You can follow her on X @amaechizara.
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