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April 25, 2026

Citations in our reporting from CDC · NIH · American Heart Association · ACOG · APA · NAACP · Kaiser Family Foundation · JAMA · NEJM · The Lancet

The Black-white maternal mortality gap widened to 3.5 times in 2023. Here is what actually moved.

CDC's 2023 brief put Black women at 50.3 deaths per 100,000 live births and white women at 14.5. That is the widest Black-white ratio federal statisticians have reported in at least five years. Reading the …

Malik Johnson Apr 24, 2026 9 min read

Policy

CMS's RAPID pathway cuts Medicare device coverage decisions from a year to two months. Black-Medicare utilization gaps live downstream of the timing change.

Malik Johnson Apr 24

Policy

Title X's FY2027 funding notice moves the federal family-planning program toward fertility-awareness counseling. A 2022 study of the 2019 precedent shows what that looks like in practice.

Malik Johnson Apr 24

This week

Editor's note

This week, we are focusing on a question that affects millions of Black families: why does the American healthcare system consistently underestimate Black patients' pain? From obstetric complications dismissed as exaggerated to sickle cell crises undertreated in emergency rooms, the data on pain bias in medicine are now overwhelming. Our lead story this week reports the research in depth and speaks to the Black clinicians building the evidence base to change it. If this reporting matters to you, share it and sign up for our newsletter below.

From our editor, Simone Abara, April 25, 2026

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Conference / summit

Black Maternal Mental Health Summit 2026 (In-Person)

May 5, 2026

Compton, CA

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Wellness Without Walls 2026 — NC100BW Metro Atlanta Community Health Fair

May 16, 2026

Atlanta, GA

Walk / Run / Ride

5th Annual Black Mothers' Wellness 5K

May 17, 2026

Houston, TX

Education

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Black LGBTQ+ Health

Black LGBTQ+ people face the sharpest within-Black health disparities in the United States. Black men who have sex with men …

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Black Women's Health

Black women in the United States face the widest maternal mortality gap in the high-income world. In 2023, the Black …

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Black Men's Health

Black men develop heart failure at a median age of 39, two decades before white peers, per the CARDIA cohort …

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Kids and Teens

Approximately 1 in 365 Black or African American babies is born with sickle cell disease, and about 1 in 13 …

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Seniors

Black seniors are Medicare-enrolled at similar rates to white seniors but receive less hospice, more intensive end-of-life procedures, and fewer …

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Data

Black health by the numbers

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Chronic Disease

1 in 365

Black American births inherit sickle cell disease — making it the most common genetic disease in the Black community

Updated April 1, 2026

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2.4M

Black Americans fell into the Medicaid coverage gap in states that have not expanded — losing access to subsidized coverage

Updated March 30, 2026

View data Maternal & Reproductive

3.3×

Black women die from pregnancy-related causes at 3.3 times the rate of white women

Updated March 15, 2026

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Policy

Health Policy Watch

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Active Federal

H.R. 3888

PFAS Clean Water Act

Environmental justice research consistently shows Black and low-income communities bear disproportionate PFAS exposure. A 2021 Nature Communications study …

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Critical Federal

H.R. 567