Honouring the labour of Black health care professionals
Our instagram posts throughout this month will highlight Canada’s first Black nurses, and the challenges they overcame to receive their education, starting in the late 1940’s. This included crossing the border when they were barred from joining Canadian nursing programs, contrary to a commonly held belief that racism might be less severe in this country. These changemakers created opportunities for generations after them to pursue careers in healthcare. This progress has not always been linear, with Canada’s first Black physicians preceding them by almost 100 years, only for their would-be followers to face admission bans years later. We also want to note that there have always been skilled healers in Black communities, regardless of formal education options. They have held the knowledge to support pregnant people’s choices, whether carrying to term or having an abortion.
Standards of care that apply to regulated health professionals purportedly keep patients safe. Often, however, they do not leave room for incorporating the cultural wisdom that can give folks a sense of safety in a clinical space. Western healthcare institutions inflict colonial violence in ways that go unseen; from failing to collect race-based data to better understand patient outcomes, to deeply harmful practices like forced sterilization and contraceptive coercion. Black health professionals are one part of creating safer spaces for folks in their communities, but institutions must embrace this work at the highest level, following the leadership of these providers, and ensuring that their efforts are fairly compensated.
February is an ideal time to renew our commitment to Reproductive Justice in every aspect of our work. Founded and led by Black women in the 1990s, the Reproductive Justice movement challenges abortion narratives that centre white women's experiences, addressing the intersecting identities and factors that influence a person's ability to make reproductive choices. Reproductive Justice encompasses an understanding that experiences that disproportionately affect Black communities, such as police brutality, mass incarceration, and environmental injustice, affect people's ability to have and raise children.
We are already reflecting on historic triumphs and losses around abortion rights following the recent anniversaries of Roe v Wade day on January 22nd; and Morgentaler Decision Day on January 28th. 36 years after the case that led to abortion decriminalization in Canada, we must centre Black folks’ lived experiences, expertise and leadership in our efforts to ensure that all pregnant people can access the health care that they need. We want to highlight the providers included in Minocare’s Black Perinatal Care Workers Directory, and the Ontario Black Doulas Directory, many of whom include abortion support within their scope of care. There are additional resources in our 2022 post on Black health in the GTA.