Narratives on Reproductive Justice Among Black Adolescent Girls in Clinical Research in the US

Med Anthropol. 2023 Apr 3;42(3):222-235. doi: 10.1080/01459740.2023.2185145. Epub 2023 Mar 2.

Abstract

Narratives reflecting on a longitudinal study of sexual and reproductive health during the adolescent years of young, low-income, Black women in the US show that participants felt cared for, supported, and recognized during the study in ways counter to dominant modes of structural, medical, and obstetric racism and stratified reproduction. Black women's narratives illuminate how research tools offered access to alternative, unanticipated, and improvised sources of Black feminist care and social networks that have much to teach us about how to transform adolescent care in the face of reproductive injustices in the US.

Keywords: Black feminist care; USA; adolescent health; biomedical research; obstetric racism; reproductive justice; sexually transmitted infections; social networks.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Anthropology, Medical
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Longitudinal Studies
  • Pregnancy
  • Reproduction*
  • Sexual Behavior*
  • Social Justice