CONVERGE is horrified and heartbroken to hear of the death of Tierra Walker, a 37 year old from San Antonio, Texas who died after being denied lifesaving abortion care. Tierra’s story is difficult for anyone to read, but we know it is especially painful for anyone who has experienced the same injustices Tierra and her family faced during her pregnancy.
Stories like Tierra’s should never exist, but we know they are far too common. In the United States, Black birthing people are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than their white counterparts – a disparity created, in part, by structural and medical racism and policy failures.
Knowing that most of these deaths, including Tierra’s, are preventable is what drives us at CONVERGE to work towards a world in which all people are able to access the reproductive health care they need when they need it. Research by our team is working urgently to understand the policies and systems that lead to adverse reproductive health outcomes and to provide evidence that drives meaningful change. For example, CONVERGE faculty are documenting how reproductive-health policies shape the health of people with chronic disease, how Medicaid coverage of medically necessary abortions reduces severe maternal morbidity, and how the vagueness in abortion definitions and ban exceptions is having deadly effects.
Kavitha Surana and Lizzie Presser, the journalists who originally reported Tierra’s story said it best: “All patients need the freedom to choose how much risk they are willing to take during pregnancy. Walker expressed that she didn’t want to take that risk, her family says. She had a vibrant life, a husband and son whom she loved.”
CONVERGE will continue to work toward a world where senseless and preventable deaths like this will not occur.