Black midwives file landmark lawsuit against Georgia over some of the nation’s most restrictive birth laws
TheGrio...
Midwives and maternal health advocates sue Georgia over its restrictive midwifery laws claiming they deepen maternal health crisis.
Jamarah Amani became a midwife because of what happened to her in a Georgia hospital. Staff dismissed her birth preferences. She had no autonomy over her own body during one of the most vulnerable moments of her life. It was, she says, “distressing,” and it is an experience that Black women across this country know far too well.
“I had no autonomy and was treated more like a prisoner than a patient. I ended up laboring in the hospital bathroom so I could be in the position I knew was right for me,” she shared during a press conference. “Unfortunately, this is not an uncommon experience, especially for Black women whose desires and concerns are routinely dismissed in our broken medical system.”
That experience led her to her “life’s work” in midwifery, which she studied, trained for, and became licensed for in Florida, because Georgia law made it nearly impossible to do otherwise. And for more than 15 years, she has been unable to practice in the state where her calling was born.
Last week, standing in front of the Georgia state Capitol on the last day of the legislative session, Amani announced she was done waiting. She, along with fellow midwives Tamara Taitt and Sarah Stokely, filed a lawsuit against the state of Georgia, challenging its strict restrictions on midwifery, which have pushed birth workers out of the state and left pregnant women in Georgia with limited care options.
“It should not be illegal to give birth at home with a midwife. Every pregnant person should be able to choose where they give birth and with whom,” Amani, the co-founder of the National Black Midwives Alliance, added.
The lawsuit was filed by the Center for Reproductive Rights, Covington & Burling LLP, and Mitchell Shapiro Greenamyre & Funt LLP and was announced the same day Georgia lawmakers failed to pass HB520, a bill that would have largely decriminalized midwifery in the state. A failure that advocates say mirrors a broader, national unwillingness to reckon with the worsening maternal health crisis. Georgia’s midwifery laws are among the most restrictive in the country. State law threatens jail time and financial penalties for any midwife who practices without a nursing license, regardless of their training or experience. And even certified nurse midwives, who are trained to deliver babies and prescribe medications, cannot practice independently without costly physician oversight arrangements.
In February, Georgia’s oldest freestanding birth center closed its doors, leaving just three in the entire state. As of last August, only 36% of Georgia’s rural hospitals were providing labor and delivery services. Families in large portions of the state now travel three to four hours to reach the Atlanta Birth Center — currently the closest option available to them.
Taitt, who serves as the Atlanta Birth Center’s executive director, is legally prohibited from practicing midwifery in the very center she runs.
“Georgia has a maternity care crisis, and the state continues to squander a workforce that could help change that,” she shared. “The solution is more midwives, and lawmakers need to let us practice. As the US continues to fall behind in maternal mortality and morbidity, the rest of the world employs the solution: more midwives. As a country and as a state, we are visibly failing pregnant people – especially Black women, rural families, and communities of color.”
“That is a failure of access, and it places people at risk,” she concluded.
These failures don’t land equally. Black women in the U.S. die in childbirth at dramatically higher rates than white women, a disparity driven by systemic racism in healthcare, geographic isolation from providers, and a medical establishment that routinely discounts the pain and preferences of Black patients. Research consistently shows that increased access to midwives leads to better outcomes, particularly for patients of color and lower-income families with fewer C-sections, medically induced interventions, and more personalized, dignified care.
“We cannot solve the maternal health crisis without midwives—they are a key part of the solution in Georgia and nationwide. Yet under Georgia law, midwives are treated like criminals,” said Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights. “These extreme restrictions are exacerbating the maternity care crisis and infringing on the rights of pregnant women who want to give birth with midwives. We are suing the state because pregnant people should have the autonomy to decide who they give birth with, and taking away options while there is a glaring lack of providers is senseless. We must break down these legal barriers to improve maternal health care in this country.”
For Amani, the fight for justice is both personal and rooted in ancestral history. She credits the work of activists like Aurelia Browder, whose federal lawsuit challenging bus segregation in Montgomery laid the legal groundwork for the successful conclusion of the bus boycott, and Gladys Milton, a midwife who fought for years against the state of Florida for the right to practice midwifery, paving the way for future generations.
“We are not asking. We are demanding our rights,” she shared. “For the elders and the grand midwives who have carried their knowledge and traditions across generations, despite the state’s determination to stamp them out…for the courageous Black midwives whose fights for justice have led me here. Today, we continue that legacy.”
“This state and our country are in crisis, and for years, Georgia has turned its back on the obvious solution: midwives. Mamas want us. Families need us. And we’re here, ready to care for them. So it’s time for Georgia officials to get on board.”