Disability Justice and Pregnancy: A Disability Pride Month Reflection
“Disability justice means we are not left behind; we are beloved, kindred, needed.”
Care Work, Dreaming Disability Justice, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
July was Disability Pride Month, a reminder of the historical significance of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) signed in July 1990 as well as a month in which we can uplift the disability community, recognizing their contributions as well as the challenges they often face due to ableism. I want to put a special emphasis on the intersection of disability and pregnancy because we often don’t consider the ways in which pregnancy is disabling nor consider how individuals with disabilities face unique challenges when giving birth - and therefore, ableism in this context can go unacknowledged or normalized, leading to lack of resources and quality of care, particularly to communities of color.
According to the World Institute on Disability, the term “disability justice” was coined by a collective of disabled queer women of color known as Sins Invalid. This term sought to build a movement that would be more inclusive of the experiences of marginalized people with disabilities - so acknowledging, for example, the lived experiences of people of color, LGBTQ+ people, and incarcerated people who were also disabled. Focusing on the first of the ten main principles, “intersectionality” is an increasingly important framing, so we can better understand how systems of oppression interact and inform one another.
I believe the lens of disability justice can be enlightening when we talk about disability and pregnancy. In March 2024, the Maternal Mental Health Leadership Alliance released their “Disability, Pregnancy, and Maternal Mental Health Fact Sheet”, which provided insight on the prevalence of maternal mental health (MMH) conditions and challenges faced by women with disabilities who are also pregnant. Below are some findings from the fact sheet that I found to be most striking:
Women with disabilities are twice as likely to experience MMH conditions as compared to women without a disability.
Women with disabilities are more likely to be individuals of color and more likely to live in poverty, increasing their risk for experiencing MMH conditions and increasing challenges in accessing appropriate mental health care.
These findings are proof why having a disability justice approach is vital to improving overall perinatal/maternal healthcare - without seriously taking into account how things like race and class can impact the access a family has to medical care or the quality of care a clinician may give, this gap will continue to persist. In a moment in which we are watching crucial healthcare resources be stripped away, these conversations are necessary for ensuring we don’t leave behind the most marginalized, that we show solidarity with the disability community.
By: J. Saldana
Cover photo source:
NYC Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities. (n.d.). Events: Disability Independence Parade, 1993. Our History- Disability Independence Parade, 1993. https://www.nyc.gov/site/mopd/events/our-history.page?slide=27
