Philanthropist Melinda French Gates is making her presence known in Alabama. And in the process, a Tuscaloosa women’s health center is getting an international spotlight. Here’s at what four years and five million dollars can do. Our story begins with breaking news from four years ago.
“I was not expecting it at all,” said Robin Marty on June 24, 2022
“I assumed that because normally the Supreme Court will hold their absolute biggest cases until the very end, and we know I believe there's still eight more cases decisions left to come down. It's very unusual,” she added back then.
That was the day the US Supreme Court struck down Roe versus Wade, which protected abortion rights in the United States.
"People look at the idea of a post-Roe America as this place where you have abortion illegal in some states, abortion legal in other states, and you just hop over to the next state in order to be able to get an abortion, and it's not a huge deal. What we're talking about is the entire southeast being wiped out of any legal abortion clinics," Marty said.
Alabama followed suit, and abortions remain a felony in the state to this day. At that time, Robin Marty ran what was known as the West Alabama Women's Center. Prior to the Supreme Court "Dobbs" decision that ended Roe versus Wade, Marty's facility provided most of the abortions happening legally in Alabama, that included patients from as far away as Tennessee and Mississippi.
“Since we're here now. This is our new birth suite, so a person can give birth in here. There'll be like balls and all the other “labory” stuff you think of," Marty said during a tour of the new WAWC Healthcare.
The West Alabama Women's Center received a grant from Melinda French Gates. The philanthropist runs an organization called Pivotal, which hands out the dollars, and another group called Levers for Change decides who gets what amount of money. For Robin Marty, it transformed the West Alabama Women's Center into WAWC Healthcare.
“It was always meant to be a full spectrum health care center,” she observed. “And so that meant it was always going to have contraceptive services, it was always going to have birthing services, and maternal health support. This is the chance for us to be able to put all of these services together in one place," Marty said.
And the funding allowed the center to quadruple its staff.
“So, I am a licensed professional counselor, that is my official title and credentials,” said Tamela Hughes-Lawson. “I serve as the Director of Mental Health and Program Innovation here at WAWC Healthcare. So, that is what I do here.”
Expanding into mental health care is considered a big deal at the center. Hughes-Lawson is African American, and so is 98% of her clientele. Breaking through the stereotype of the strong black woman tends to be job one. Hughes-Lawson says black women were taught early on that showing emotions was dangerous.
“Those things are what got us killed, and so, if you fast forward to present day, the black woman essentially has always had this stereotype that a lot of us learned early on as young girls, as this strong black woman,” she said. “We all say it, we all have them in our families.”
A lot of the women Hughes-Lawson sees as patients have just given birth and may be dealing with postpartum depression. She says that can lead to a cascade of problems when they go home, and sometimes it gets noticed, like when the home's not being cared for.
“I won't necessarily say there's always some implication that the baby is not cared for, because that's not always the case,” Hughes-Lawson asserted. “Some things escalate to different things, so there's postpartum psychosis that can be a result of postpartum depression.”
And that can leave women feeling like failures because they're not pushing through like they think they're expected to. Now, Hughes-Lawson says she feels equipped to treat problems like this, which is something she's wanted to do for a long time.
“I have worked in other entities, and I had my private practice before I came here, and so the goal was to always create a space where women as a whole, but especially black women, can feel safe scene and supported,” she said. “And so it's a good ‘kaboom,’ as if like we finally arrived.”
And, mental health treatment isn't the only new service at the West Alabama Women's Center.
“Well, my name is Chauntel Norris, and I am the program director of the Alabama Prison Birth Project.”
If you'd like a before and after example of what the grant from Melinda French Gates and Pivotal is doing, the Alabama Prison Birth Project might do the trick. It helps female inmates through the birthing process while they're serving time at Alabama's Tutwiler Prison for Women. Norris describes how births took place before the project got started.
“So, a room full of strangers in one of the most vulnerable times of your life,” Norris recalled. “Also, during that time, they were shackled to the bed when they gave birth, so their leg would be literally handcuffed to the bed, you know, in fears that perhaps they might try to escape.”
That's before now policies have changed. Norris says. There are no more shackles, and an advocate called a “doula” is there.
“So, even though there may be a male officer in the room, the doula will help preserve the dignity of the birthing person,” Norris described. “And so, what that looks like a lot of times is, if an exam is going on, I might be standing up at the foot of the bed, holding a sheet up, so that that person's body is not visible to everyone in the room.”
And that health care need in West Central Alabama, and the chance to address it didn't go unnoticed.
“The work of WAWC was just stood out,” said Renee Wittemyer. She's the Vice President of Program Strategy at Melinda French Gates' group, Pivotal.
“Incredibly. Really important, incredibly kind of creating access for women in a place where they weren't getting access,” she said.
Wittemyer's group and its partner, Levers for Change, go through thousand of applications for grant money. She says when the one for the West Alabama Women's Center came up, it stuck out.
“Because of the trust that they've created in the community, because they have policy angles, they expanded their work as a training hub for other providers. There's just, I think, it's a wonderful model,” she said.
And a lot of people may be hearing about what's going on in Tuscaloosa. Pivotal just issued $200 million in women's health care grants worldwide. The group's website features a video of WAWC Healthcare as an example that other US states and other nations should follow.
