Fans Stand With Serena Williams After Outrageous Statement by MAGA Supporter Who Accused Pregnant Black Mothers of Using Drugs

Serena Williams’ near-death experience following the birth of her first daughter, Alexis Olympia Ohanian, in 2017 has resurfaced amid outrage over a Twitter post blaming black moms for their very own deaths during childbirth.

Studies have shown that the maternal mortality rate for black women is twice that of white women. In 2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that for each 100,000 live births, there have been 70 maternal deaths for black women.

On September 18, Joel Berry, editor-in-chief of the satirical website The Babylon Bee, sparked outrage amongst users when he posted a post that has since been deleted: “My wife is a maternity nurse and I can tell you with absolute certainty that these women have a higher mortality rate because they refuse to use prenatal care, they take more medications, they refuse to eat a proper diet, and they generally don’t take as much care of themselves.”

Outraged advocates for black women were quick to indicate that the tennis player’s self-advocacy saved her life. After an emergency C-section, Williams developed life-threatening complications, including blood clots in her lungs and legs. She also experienced a severe cough that caused the C-section wound to rupture.

The sports icon opened up in regards to the terrifying experience in a 2018 interview with “Today.” She said her persistent requests for a CT scan led doctors to find the blockages. “I can’t believe how much went wrong on the way to meet her. … I almost died,” Williams said.

She also opened up about her harrowing birthing story within the HBO documentary Being Serena, which was released the identical 12 months. The 23-time Grand Slam winner also told her medical team that she was at increased risk for potentially fatal blood clots after suffering a embolism in 2011.

There has been a backlash against the MAGA supporter online, with many pointing to Williams’ history to refute his claims. “The greatest athlete of all time IS BEING IGNORED ON THE SURGEON’S TABLE. Serena Williams almost fucking died in childbirth. I can’t believe it. Unlimited GALA,” one wrote tweet.

Second user common“Serena Williams almost died because she didn’t take her prenatal meds and took drugs??? Maybe… his wife could base her care on that assumption. Studies do show that drug use is highest among the most privileged, but carry on.”

Third tweet To read“It all makes sense. I mean, Serena Williams had serious complications during childbirth, and who eats worse than the world’s number 1 tennis player??” Another user called Berry’s wife’s claims “complete racist bullshit,” as one other person hoped she could be sued for violating her Hippocratic oath.

Two years later, in 2019, Williams helped Mahmee, a tech company hoping to rework prenatal and postnatal take care of moms and kids, raise $3 million.

A month before the couple’s second daughter, Adira, is due in 2023, Williams’ husband Alexis Ohanian said People “They were obviously taking every precaution and doing everything they could to make sure everything went smoothly for Serena,” though he didn’t provide details on the measures being taken to make sure history didn’t repeat itself.

Additionally, on September 18, Berry shared the tragic story of Amber Nicole Thurman, a Georgia mother who died in August 2022 from complications caused by a delay in receiving medical care attributable to that state’s anti-abortion laws.

Thurman, who was six weeks pregnant, went to a North Carolina clinic where she was given abortion pills. A number of days after the abortion was induced, she developed an infection attributable to fetal tissue remaining within the uterus.

The mother of one experienced significant blood loss and loss of consciousness, prompting her to hunt medical attention at Piedmont Henry Hospital. She required dilation and curettage, a procedure to empty the uterus of its contents, but was denied the care she needed for 20 hours.

While within the hospital, her organs failed before staff intervened. Her death was ruled “preventable,” in line with ProPublica. Georgia law prohibits doctors from terminating a pregnancy after six weeks, the time when the fetus has a detectable heartbeat.

Berry insists the black mother was “killed by the abortionist” who provided her with the pills, not because she was denied the life-saving procedure after she became unwell.