Colonial Legacies and Contemporary Struggles: Race, Reproduction, and Health Inequalities

ABSTRACT

This special section emerges from the first European conference on race and reproduction, held in Paris in 2023. It examines how colonial legacies, racial hierarchies, and racism shape maternal and reproductive health outcomes for Black populations across Europe, Africa, South America, and North America. Moving beyond the dominant US‐centric framework in the literature, the collection draws on theoretical analysis and ethnographic research to document racial disparities in pregnancy, childbirth, fertility care, and reproductive rights in contexts including the United Kingdom, Portugal, South Africa, Cape Verde, Brazil, and Canada. Key theoretical contributions include the concepts of “uneven reproduction,” “obstetric racism,” and an intersectional framework of agency that resists portraying Black birthing people as passive victims. Together, the essays advance a decolonial approach to medical anthropology that situates reproductive injustice within broader histories of colonialism, racial capitalism, and population governance.