Black community influencers, Maura Chanz, Andrea Lewis, Darnell Moore and Ashley Blaine Featherson sat down with Alencia Johnson, Director of Public Engagement at Planned Parenthood, to discuss the importance of sexual and reproductive services within the black community.

Title X, the nation's only birth control and reproductive health care program, is at risk of ending under the Trump Administration. The administration recently proposed a new rule that would prohibit doctors who receive Title X support from explicitly referring patients to information about abortion at the risk of losing their funding.

Title X ensures that low income individuals have access to family planning and preventative care services like STI testing, education and counseling, and breast and cervical cancer screenings.

Each influencer shared their thoughts on what’s at stake for the four million people that Title X serves and why it's important for black communities to talk about reproductive health in our communities and defend our right to health care.

“People’s lives are at risk in general.” Chanz said. “In such a simple way, by taking that [Title X] away it’ll be saying we don’t care about your bodies,” added Blaine. “We don’t care about what happens to you. We don’t care about your health. We don’t care about your well being.”

“I think that particularly for people of color. We already feel that way. We already feel that we’re not valued and we’re not held in the same regard and we’re not seen in the same way as other people,” she added.

Watch the video above to hear the full discussion.

Alencia Johnson

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