Under a new program announced Monday by Mayor Lauren Breed, 150 pregnant Pacific Islanders and Black people in San Francisco will be allocated $1,000 monthly throughout their pregnancies and for six months postpartum. The goal of this program is to create birth equity in a city where pregnant people who are Black or Pacific Islander have higher maternal mortality rates and higher rates of preterm births than their white counterparts.
In San Francisco, these differences are further exacerbated by the billion dollar tech industries that have pushed people from the middle and lower class out of the city or into inadequate living conditions. The median household income of Black and Pacific Islander families is $30,000 and $67,000, respectively, while the general median income is over $104,000.
In Monday’s statement Malawa said, “Providing direct, unconditional cash aid is a restorative step that not only demonstrates trust in women to make the right choices for themselves and their families, but could also decrease the underlying stress of financial insecurity that may be contributing to the high rates of premature birth in these communities.”
literally racial discrimination.