Reframing “environmental harms” to include more than just pollutants and toxins to effectively address reproductive health inequities

Head shot of Brittney Francis

Harvard Bell Fellow Brittney Butler, PhD, has co-authored a review in the journal Current Obstetrics and Gynecology Reports that examines the literature from the last five years focused on “the built and social environment factors and maternal pregnancy complications among racially marginalized women.” Their findings point to a scant number of existing studies—after excluding the ones that focused on environmental toxins—and they make the case for why an environmental justice framework is…