Letters to Soleil: Reproductive Reparations as Black Maternal Justice

• Pages: 1543-1583
• Date: 01 June 2024
• Published date: 01 June 2024
• Author: Kristen Paige Green
• Subject Matter: Derecho Civil

NOTE

Letters to Soleil: Reproductive Reparations as Black

Maternal Justice

KRISTEN PAIGE GREEN* TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1544

I. STATE OF BLACK MATERNAL MORTALITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1546

A. STATE OF BLACK PREGNANCY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1547

B. STATE OF BLACK CHILDBIRTH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1550

C. STATE OF BLACK POSTPARTUM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1552

II. MATERNITY AND MISOGYNOIR. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1554

A. OTHERING THE BLACK MOTHER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1554

B. LABELING THE BLACK MOTHER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1556

C. COMMODIFYING THE BLACK MOTHER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1560

III. MODERN INSTITUTIONAL MISOGYNOIR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1563

A. REGULATING BLACK MOTHERS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1563

B. DISSECTING BLACK MOTHERS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1566

C. SILENCING BLACK MOTHERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1568

IV. WEATHERING THE BLACK MOTHER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1570

A. I AM 27, GOING ON 35 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1570

B. GROUNDING THE WEATHERING HYPOTHESIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1571

C. COMPOUNDING HISTORICAL REPRODUCTIVE TRAUMA . . . . . . . . . . . . 1572

* Georgetown University Law Center, J.D. 2023. © Kristen Paige Green. This Note was inspired

by Professor Jill C. Morrison, whose guidance and advocacy improves our world, especially mine. I

also want to thank Professor Sheila R. Foster and Professor Jamillah Bowman Williams for their

invaluable support and mentorship over the years. Many thanks to the brilliant Editors and Staff of

Volume 112 of The Georgetown Law Journal for their diligence and care, especially Samantha Purdy,

Tate Rosenblatt, Kachun Leung, Abby West, Sara Brizio, Maria Lowe, Zarah Shao, Conor O’Shea,

and Evan Chiacchiaro.

1543

V. REPRODUCTIVE REPARATIONS REQUIRED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1573

A. DEFINING THE BLACK MATERNAL HEALTH CRISIS AS A “BADGE OF

SLAVERY”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1574

B. OUTLINING REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE REPARATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1575

C. ENACTING REPRODUCTIVE REPARATIONS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1578

1. Universal Basic Income............................. 1578

2. Universal Parental Paid Leave ....................... 1580

3. Universal Healthcare ............................... 1581

CONCLUSION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1582

INTRODUCTION

I see inequity wherever it exists, call it by name, and work to eliminate it.

1

Shalon Irving (@shalonirvingphd), X, https://twitter.com/shalonirvingphd [https://perma.cc/

JCW9-WQAF] (last visited May 24, 2024).

Dr. Shalon MauRene Irving—the proud author of this Twitter bio—

championed medical equity.

2

See Nina Martin & Renee Montagne, Black Mothers Keep Dying After Giving Birth. Shalon Irving’s

Story Explains Why, NPR (Dec. 7, 2017, 7:51 PM), https://www.npr.org/2017/12/07/568948782/black-

mothers-keep-dying-after-giving-birth-shalon-irvings-story-explains-why [https://perma.cc/VEA5-HJ3C].

The thirty-six-year-old epidemiologist dedicated

herself to “understanding how structural racism, intersectionality, trauma, and

violence inf‌luence health disparities over a lifetime.”

3

Tanjala S. Purnell, Wanda Irving, Soleil Irving, Lauren Underwood, Raegan McDonald-Mosley,

Chidinma Ibe, Debra Hickman & Janice Bowie, Honoring Dr. Shalon Irving, A Champion for Health

Equity, 41 HEALTH AFFS. 304, 304 (2022); accord Shalon M. Irving Health Equity Award, CTRS. FOR

DISEASE CONTROL & PREVENTION (May 8, 2023), https://www.cdc.gov/eis/conference/awards/shalon-

irving.html [https://perma.cc/DT7F-ASKZ]; Martin & Montagne, supra note 2.

Shalon was an esteemed

scholar, advocate, and friend.

4

In mid-2016, Shalon learned that she would

become a mother.

5

As Shalon’s extensive “village” prepared for her baby’s arrival, Shalon navi-

gated the stressors of daily life.

6

Shalon’s relationship ended, and she braced for

single motherhood.

7

She grieved two brothers, both of whom passed years earlier.

8

Shalon struggled with career-related anxiety, weight management, and blood

1.

2.

3.

4. Purnell et al., supra note 3, at 304–05.

5. Martin & Montagne, supra note 2.

6. Id.

7. Id. (“There was the painful end to Shalon’s romance with her baby’s father and her dashed hopes

of raising their child together. There were worries about money and panic attacks about the diff‌iculties

of being a black single mother in the South in the era of Trayvon Martin and Tamir Rice. Shalon told

everyone she was hoping for a girl.”).

8. Id. (“Her brother Sam III sardonically joked that the family had a ‘death gene,’ but Shalon didn’t

think that was funny.”). Shalon considered Sam her “sunshine” and nicknamed her future child “Sunny”

in honor of her brother. Id.

1544 THE GEORGETOWN LAW JOURNAL [Vol. 112:1543

clots.

9

Shalon’s conditions and previous f‌ibroid removal surgery eliminated her

vaginal birthing options, and she scheduled a cesarean section (C-section).

10

Still,

Shalon glowed with pride throughout her pregnancy,

11

delivering a healthy baby

girl in January 2017.

12

Katie Kindelan, Woman Works to End Black Maternal Health Crisis After Daughter Dies After

Giving Birth, ABC NEWS (Apr. 14, 2022, 4:09 AM), https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Wellness/woman-

works-end-black-maternal-health-crisis-daughter/story?id=84024414 [https://perma.cc/6ESX-6ZU8].

Shalon named her daughter Soleil, for the sun.

13

Shalon needed postpartum care within a week of delivery. Shalon’s blood pres-

sure skyrocketed, and she developed a hematoma.

14

On swollen limbs, Shalon

sought emergency medical assistance “at least nine or 10 times in those two

weeks.”

15

After ruling out blood clots, Shalon’s doctors prescribed hypertension

medication and patience.

16

Shalon sought help almost every day, and she was

sent home every time.

17

Three weeks after welcoming Soleil, Shalon collapsed in her home.

18

Four

days later, Shalon’s family withdrew life support.

19

* * *

Black motherhood in the United States remains the ultimate survival exercise.

Since slavery’s inception, the state has denied Black mothers the necessary

resources to survive pregnancy, delivery, and life postpartum. Chattel slavery

relied on systematic forced birthing practices.

20

In the modern day, state repro-

ductive violence

21

against Black mothers takes place through everyday resource

9. Id. (“In reality, Shalon’s many risk factors — including her clotting disorder, her f‌ibroid surgery,

the 36 years of wear and tear on her telomeres, her weight — boded a challenging nine months. . . . ‘If I

was the doctor taking care of her, I’d be like, “Oh, this is going to be a tough one,”‘her OB/GYN friend

McDonald-Mosley said.”).

10. Id.

11. Purnell et al., supra note 3, at 304.

12.

13. Martin & Montagne, supra note 2.

14. Id.

15. Kindelan, supra note 12.

16. Martin & Montagne, supra note 2. In one instance, Shalon’s doctors declined to diagnose her

with postpartum preeclampsia, “very high blood pressure that can occur 48 hours to 6 weeks after giving

birth, because she did not meet all the diagnostic criteria.” Kindelan, supra note 12.

17. Kindelan, supra note 12.

18. See id.

19. Id.

20. Cf. Colleen Campbell, Medical Violence, Obstetric Racism, and the Limits of Informed Consent

for Black Women, 26 MICH. J. RACE & L. 47, 70 (2021) (“Black women’s overmedicalization is an

extension of biomedical racialization that began with enslaved women.”).

21. Reproductive violence is the violation of an individual’s reproductive agency. Ciara Laverty &

Dieneke de Vos, Reproductive Violence as a Category of Analysis: Disentangling the Relationship

Between ‘the Sexual’ and ‘the Reproductive’ in Transitional Justice, 15 INT’L J. TRANSITIONAL JUST.

616, 616 (2021); Rosemary Grey, The ICC’s First ‘Forced Pregnancy’ Case in Historical Perspective,

15 J. INT’L CRIM. JUST. 905, 906 (2017). Acts of reproductive violence are often linked to sexual

violence, but reproductive oppression or restriction also qualif‌ies as reproductive violence. Laverty & de

Vos, supra, at 616–17. Examples of reproductive violence include forced pregnancies and sterilizations,

forced abortions and contraception, and systemic attempts to control the reproductive choices of

marginalized groups. Id. at 617, 625; Rachelle Chadwick & Jabulile Mary-Jane Jace Mavuso, On

Reproductive Violence: Framing Notes, AGENDA, 2021, at 1, 1.

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