Historical Primer on Obstetrics and Gynecology Health Inequities in America: A Narrative Review of Four Events

Obstet Gynecol. 2023 Oct 1;142(4):779-786. doi: 10.1097/AOG.0000000000005331. Epub 2023 Sep 7.

Abstract

Four historical events provide context for racial injustices and inequities in medicine in the United States today: the invention of race as a social construct, enslavement in the Americas, the legal doctrine of Partus sequitur ventrem, and the American eugenics movement. This narrative review demonstrates how these race-based systems resulted in stereotypes, myths, and biases against Black individuals that contribute to health inequities today. Education on the effect of slavery in current health care outcomes may prevent false explanations for inequities based on stereotypes and biases. These historical events validate the need for medicine to move away from practicing race-based medicine and instead aim to understand the intersectionality of sex, race, and other social constructs in affecting the health of patients today.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Black People* / history
  • Black or African American
  • Female
  • Gynecology* / history
  • Health Inequities*
  • Human Rights Abuses* / ethnology
  • Human Rights Abuses* / history
  • Humans
  • Obstetrics* / history
  • Pregnancy
  • Social Determinants of Health / ethnology
  • Social Determinants of Health / history
  • Systemic Racism* / ethnology
  • Systemic Racism* / history
  • United States