The Death of A Champion and Would-be Mother: Centering Equity in Maternal Health and Paid Leave
Josephine Kalipeni, Executive Director
Tori Bowie was an Olympic gold medalist. When she was found dead on May 2, 2023, she was eight months pregnant. An autopsy found that Tori died from childbirth complications, likely resulting from eclampsia and respiratory distress.
Tori is now part of an alarming number. Black women like me are three times more likely to die from a pregnancy complication than White women, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This statistic is especially unsettling because the CDC found that approximately 80% of pregnancy-related deaths — those occurring during pregnancy, during childbirth, and as long as one year after birth — can be prevented.
We know the Black maternal mortality rate is not affected by fame: entrepreneur and tennis champion Serena Williams shared how she had to beg doctors to listen to her when she felt ill during her pregnancy despite having a noted history of pulmonary embolism. It’s not an uncommon experience for our voices to be muted or ignored. As one study found, doctors don’t take Black women seriously.
Nor is maternal mortality contingent on education: a Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) analysis shows that pregnancy-related deaths among Black women with college degrees is 1.6 times higher than the maternal mortality rate among White women who have less than a high school degree.
Neither is maternal mortality affected by fitness level: Again, Tori was an Olympian, and so was her Olympics teammate, Allyson Felix, whose eclampsia led to her having an emergency C-section at only 32 weeks of pregnancy.
Black maternal health and mortality are intrinsically tied to another issue that is plagued by inequity: paid medical and family leave and paid sick and safe days. That is, only 13 states, including the District of Columbia, have paid medical and family leave laws. Tori died in Florida, one of the states without such a law.
I know what it is like to experience a life-threatening pregnancy and not have access to paid leave. During college, I went to work only hours after having to terminate my ectopic pregnancy and being diagnosed as septic. I had no choice because I did not have the benefit of paid sick leave, and I could not afford to miss work.
In the U.S., 36 million working people do not have paid leave; and according to a 2022 KFF study, fewer than half of employed women have paid medical or family leave. Also, 49% of employed women with higher incomes have paid leave, compared to 33% of women with lower incomes.
Hispanic and Black women have the lowest rates of access to paid leave. These are women who, when faced with pregnancy complications or other health issues, will have the same two choices I had: keep your job and work sick or lose the job and with it, your livelihood, all while being the life source of an unborn child.
Whether expecting parents need time for doctor appointments during pregnancy or to heal following delivery, having to decide between their jobs, the wellness of their child, and their health is no choice at all. Yet, millions of pregnant workers have to make that decision everyday; a decision that disproportionately impacts Black women and their families since 52.5% of Black women are the heads of their households. Add to that the fact that more than 4 in 5 Black mothers are also the breadwinners in their families, and what you have is a recipe for financial disaster. When mom is sick, the entire family suffers. And, as a major worker pool, our entire economy suffers.
The inequity in access to paid leave is intersectional and affects health, financial autonomy, and many other aspects of one’s life. Our solutions, therefore, must be intersectional.
The bottom line is that every woman that chooses to carry to term should have the privilege of a healthy pregnancy, regardless of race, state residency, or income level; and every worker deserves no less than a paid medical and family leave benefit. Family Values @ Work is working to make this a reality, because women’s health, families, and quite possibly, their lives, depend on it.
Featured Photo: Tori Bowie (center) races in the 100 m semifinal at the 2017 London World Championships, where she then took the gold medal in the final. Credits/Copyrights
