It’s been challenging entering this week after the dust settles from the horrifying racist and Islamophobic violence we witnessed this August. While the very public displays of solidarity from anti-racist demonstrations towards the end of the week and over the weekend were heartening to see, it’s hard to shake off the reality that so many people felt justified in displaying their hate to racially minoritised communities.
As many commentators have conveyed, relentless hostile, racist, discriminatory, and divisive rhetoric, coupled with the spread of misinformation, have created fertile ground for racists to display their harmful behaviour.
Channeling our energies
Last week, Birthrights channeled our energy into writing to local, regional and national politicians and policy makers to make sure they were considering the needs of pregnant women and birthing people in their resilience and emergency plans. We insisted that safe measures be put in place to enable access to hospital, community and home-based maternity care, particularly for Black, Brown and Muslim women and birthing people while ensuring the safety of staff.
The threat continues
While we are relieved that further violence did not materialise over the weekend, after the headlines have moved on, we are faced with the same deeply embedded racism that continues to see Black women nearly four times as likely and Asian women twice as likely to die as a result of childbirth than white women. Where there continue to be failures to recognise medical conditions due to skin colour; where too many experience racial stereotyping and discrimination; where we see breaches of consent and coercive practice which dismiss the voices of Black and Brown women and birthing people. Where Black and Brown healthcare professionals are disproportionately the subject of complaints and referrals to the regulators.
But on top of this we are now left with the more acute threat of what might be around the corner. Prime Minister Keir Starmer warned that the police needed to remain on “high-alert” – he did not need to tell our communities this. We have heard from our partners across the country that fear experienced by racially minoritised and marginalised communities, including refugees and people seeking asylum, may be acting as a deterrent to access hospital or community-based maternity care services. The “hostile environment” remains a barrier to access to care for migrants, refugees, and people seeking asylum. All this adds to mistrust in the healthcare system, which we fear is pushing increasing numbers of women and birthing people to feel their only option is unassisted birth – a rightfully lawful option, but only empowering if it comes from a place of genuine choice.
Taking action
Now is the time to take action. We must remove harmful NHS charging rules that deter people from accessing care and force healthcare professionals to act as pseudo- border control officials. Effective interpretation services are vital to ensure women and birthing people can access rights-respecting care and can properly consent to treatment, but are rarely available. We need to end the detention of pregnant women in both the criminal justice and immigration systems.
With all of this in mind, we wrote to Wes Streeting again this week to reassert why the starting point, even in crisis, must always be to try to uphold the human rights of women and birthing people.
We need a SAFE Maternity Care Act
We have set out our calls for a new SAFE Maternity Care Act to make crystal clear how the law applies to all those who manage, deliver and regulate maternity care. There has never been a more critical time to face up to the realities of systemic racism and take collective action to dismantle it.
Either everyone has human rights, or no one does.