Fighting anti-Blackness in healthcare requires more than lip service.

Fighting anti-Blackness in healthcare requires more than lip service.

I was heartbroken earlier this year when I discovered that Dr. Janell Green Smith, a 31-year-old Black scholar, nurse and maternal health advocate, passed away on New Year’s Day. She died from complications related to the birth of her first child. Green was diagnosed with severe preeclampsia and delivered her baby at 32 weeks via caesarean, which is standard protocol for treating preeclampsia. Days later, her incision scar ruptured, and she was …