Trust Black women: Listen to us about our reproductive lives
Abortion, Contraception
Awarded 2017
Community-Based Participatory Research Grants
Caitlin Gerdts, PhD
Ibis Reproductive Health
$149,597

Current literature on the reproductive health of Black women has focused on highlighting differences in reproductive health outcomes between Black women and other racial/ethnic groups. Although, it is acknowledged that the lived experience of Black women contributes to these differences, few studies have attempted to understand the mechanism through which this lived experience influences perspectives of and processes related to reproductive health. Therefore, we propose to conduct a community-based participatory research study that explores how Black women conceptualize reproductive health relative to their existing resources and the broad range of factors that influence reproductive health decision-making for this population. The study also aims to generate strategies for engaging Black women and their communities around various reproductive health topics. The proposed research project is a collaborative effort between SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective and Ibis Reproductive Health. For this proposal, SisterSong will leverage the Trust Black Women (TBW) Partnership to conduct a series of focus-group discussions and in-depth interviews with Black women, 18-49 years, living in Georgia, North Carolina, and New York—states with a range of reproductive and women’s health legislative policies. Having Black women serve as their own spokespeople as well as Black women-led organizations leading activities in all phases of the project (design, implementation, analysis, and dissemination) adds value to the research and the findings and will help ensure that policy and communication initiatives developed from this work are relevant and specific to Black women and the communities in which they reside.