ATLANTA, Georgia, Oct 19 – Francisca Shaw said she knew something was deeply wrong as she was rushed into an emergency cesarean for the delivery of her third child, a daughter, at Seattle’s University of Washington Medical Center in 2015.
“I remember I told my doctor when I was getting cut: ‘I can’t breathe,” Shaw recalled saying. “She said: ‘Oh yeah, you can.'”
Shaw’s uterus ruptured during the c-section, causing heavy bleeding. She required a hysterectomy and went into cardiac arrest, according to medical records reviewed by Reuters. She was hospitalized for three weeks after the birth, the records show.
The University of Washington Medical Center did not comment on Shaw’s case, citing federal privacy laws, but said it was “committed to ensuring high quality and equity” in all of its patient care.
Advocates are trying to use the Nov. 5 election as a moment to raise awareness about reproductive health inequities impacting Black women, including higher rates of pregnancy and delivery complications and deaths, as well as higher rates of certain cancers.
Democratic candidate Kamala Harris has made abortion rights a central plank of her campaign – and in campaign appearances has blamed Republican Donald Trump for the deaths of two young Black mothers in Georgia, a state with abortion restrictions.
While public opinion surveys rank inflation and the economy as top priorities for Black women, Reuters spoke to 10 activist groups that said they were aiming to mobilize women of color around issues of systemic health care inequities. The effort is part of a 30-year-old movement for “reproductive justice.”
