Aftershock Review

Originally published on Left Voice

Amber Rose Isaac, Sharmony Gibson, and Kira Johnson wanted to be mothers. Anti-choice America is currently doing everything it can to portray the pro-choice majority as callous and irresponsible. They tend to leave out that we are the ones fighting for the rights of parents and their children.

Directors Tonya Lewis Lee and Paula Eiselt display the disastrous effects of the for-profit medical industry on Black pregnant people in Aftershock, which debuted on July 19th on Hulu. Not only does a medical system based on profit cause death and pain: it strips birth, an event which is transformative and meaningful for so many people, down to a joyless, mechanical problem that needs to be solved. And for all too many Black people, it leads to death in a racist, for profit medical system. Black women die three times more than white women as a result of labor.

The racial inequality in maternal care is inextricably linked to the economy. Because of income inequality and America’s abysmal medical insurance system, Black women are far more likely to give birth in hospitals and clinics. There are no internists with specialize natal plans and individualized attention: often enough, there isn’t even emergency care.

Amber Rose Isaac died due to complications in her pregnancy that the hospital…