The environment is not racist or prejudiced to one group of people over or above the other. That being said there are certain environmental conditions that certain groups of people are subjected to and other relieved from.

Factors that contribute to this:

• Socioeconomic status
• Race/Ethnicity
• Class
• Education

Mohai, Pellow and Timmons in the Environmental Justice article (that can be found in your resources) does an excellent analysis of how impactful the exposure to pollution is to certain populations of people who have been left vulnerable. The truth is that certain exposures are unequally distributed by race and class. One example would be the gentrification of certain major cities.

Hurricane Sandy

On October 22, 2012 Hurricane Sandy touched down on land causing nearly $70 billion in damage. In the days following the hurricane there was a significantly large boost in the number of babies born in one New Jersey hospital. According to a study published in the Department of OBGYN there is a relationship to spontaneous delivery and the atmospheric pressure fluctuation, like the shift that happens during a hurricane.

What's the relationship?

Climate change has led to increasingly destructive hurricanes. Lower income neighborhoods without the resources and access to health care and the ability to rebuild/relocate following a natural disaster are at a higher risk.

Hurricane Katrina



Hurricane Katrina touched down in August of 2005, causing over $125 billion in damage and killing over 1,800 people. I would urge you to look into further lack of response by the United States government.

Louisiana at 44.8 per 100,000, has one of the highest rates of Black maternal mortality and morbidity of all the United States.

After the destruction of Hurricane Katrina there was an immense privatization of hospitals. This was partly due to the lack of resources and the amount of money that was said to be gained. These "private" hospitals were largely Catholic.

What's the relationship?

The Public Rights/Private Conscience Project (PRPCP) now known as the Law Rights and Religion Project is an organization whose mission in part is to ensure that laws and policies acknowledge freedom of religion and those who are non-religious. This organization recently came out with a report that examined Catholic hospitals and their impacts on Black women. This study found that women of color disproportionately relied on Catholic hospitals for care in relation or comparison to white women. More specifically black and Hispanic women, currently 44 states have Catholic hospitals. This in part is a result of a lack of access to healthcare. Catholic hospitals and Catholic providers follow a set of directives known as the Ethical Religious Directives drawn from the Church’s moral and theological teachings. Catholic hospitals are partly funded privately from both the Catholic church as well as private donors. The amount of Catholic hospitals in Louisiana and more specifically around some of the main areas of damage following hurricane Katrina were disheartening. The amount of resource that these hospitals in particular have access to creates a space where they were able to dominate care following the Hurricane’s wake to pregnant or birthing mothers. This left a need that was being largely filled by those who do not have the patient’s best interest or autonomy at heart, this is exemplified in the structure of the way and the laws they use to practice by. This overtaking is directly because of our government's inaction.