Black Mothers and Vaccine Refusal: Gendered Racism, Healthcare, and the State

Vaccine refusal has increasingly been the focus of public health concern. Rates of children who are up to date on vaccines have declined in recent years, and vaccine refusal has been implicated in disease outbreaks. Most research on children who are not fully immunized identifies white affluent mothers as most likely to opt out by choice and Black mothers as more likely to face structural barriers that limit access to vaccines for their children. In this paper, we analyze social media posts and online discussions among Black mothers to better understand their concerns about vaccines. Unlike white women who reject vaccines as a personal choice, Black mothers express unique concerns about the role of the state in their lives. Specifically, some Black mothers using social media view vaccines as a white technology and claim that white women have greater freedom in opting out of vaccines without the same risks to their families. They describe efforts to strategize interactions with pediatricians and other healthcare providers who can report them to social service agencies or block access to welfare and nutritional benefits for their families if they refuse vaccines. Black women’s experiences with structural gendered racism in interactions with healthcare and education systems shape vaccine decisions and should be taken seriously.