Additional pregnant black women across California will receive a guaranteed monthly income due to a novel program to address the root causes of racial injustices.
Beginning in San Francisco, the Abundant Birth Project provided $1,000 per month to black residents during their pregnancies and the first six months of their children’s lives.
Now, the program is expanding to 525 people in San Francisco, Alameda, Contra Costa, Los Angeles, and Riverside counties after a $6.5 million increase in funding from the California Department of Social Services.
Recipients are randomly selected after meeting the eligibility requirements: They must be in their first or second trimester and take in an annual household income of less than $100,000. Eligible women can receive monthly stipends of $600 to $1,000, depending on which county they live in, over the next year.
CALIFORNIA CITY TO GIVE TRANSGENDER AND NONBINARY RESIDENTS UP TO $900 A MONTH
The program aims to provide financial relief for those suffering from high degrees of income disparities and racial inequality, according to the California Preterm Birth initiative.
“This guaranteed income program helps ease some of the financial burdens that all too often keep mothers from being able to prioritize their own health and ultimately impact the health of their babies and family,” Mayor London Breed said in a statement announcing the expansion, according to KQED.
Breed said the effort is “rooted in racial justice” and added she hopes the Abundant Birth Project will “serve as a model to address racial birth disparities throughout the region and state, and across the country.”
Black women disproportionately experience the highest maternal mortality rates among any population, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They also are twice as likely than white women to give birth prematurely. According to KQED, the program’s health impacts are being studied at the University of California at Berkeley, San Francisco, and Davis.
“For so long, Black women have been excluded from the resources needed to have safe and healthy pregnancies,” said Dr. Zea Malawa, director of Expecting Justice, which is overseeing the project with the San Francisco Department of Public Health. “This funding will provide pregnant people with economic stability during this critical phase in their lives while allowing public health institutions to test a novel and promising public health intervention.”
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Michaela Taylor, project manager for Expecting Justice, said that the program allows the women to use the cash to address their needs as they see fit, including taking leave to spend time with their newborns.
“We want to make sure we’re replicating that as we expand, because that’s the whole thing about abundance, (which is) making sure folks feel celebrated and that they’re just getting a lot of resources,” Taylor said.
