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Fans support Serena Williams after MAGA supporter's outrageous claim accusing pregnant black mothers of drug use

Serena Williams' near-death experience following the birth of her first daughter, Alexis Olympia Ohanian, in 2017 has resurfaced amid outrage over a tweet blaming black mothers for their own deaths in childbirth.

Studies have shown that the mortality rate for black mothers is twice that of white women. In 2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that there were 70 black maternal deaths for every 100,000 live births.

On September 18, Joel Berry, editor-in-chief of Christian satire website The Babylon Bee, sparked an outcry from users with a now-deleted post that read: “My wife is a maternity nurse and I can tell you with certainty that their mortality rate is higher because they refuse prenatal care, take more medications, don't eat properly and take overall worse care of themselves.”

Fans support Serena Williams after MAGA supporter's outrageous claim accusing pregnant black mothers of drug use
Serena Williams fans rush to defend black women against MAGA supporter Joel Berry's racist claims about the death rate of black women. Photos: Serenawilliams/Instagram; JoelWBerry/Instagram.

Angry defenders of black women were quick to point out that the tennis star's advocacy for herself saved her life. After an emergency C-section, Williams developed life-threatening complications, including blood clots in her lungs and legs. She also suffered from a severe cough, which caused the C-section wound to burst.

The sports icon spoke openly about the horrific ordeal in a 2018 interview with “Today.” She said her persistent requests for a CT scan led to doctors discovering the emboli. “I can't believe how much went wrong on the way to their meet. … I almost died,” Williams said.

She also told her horrific birth story in the HBO documentary “Being Serena,” which was released in theaters the same year. The 23-time Grand Slam winner also informed her medical team that she was at higher risk of potentially fatal blood clots after an embolism in 2011.

Reactions to the MAGA supporter piled up online, with many pointing to Williams' story to refute his claims. “The greatest athlete of all time IS IGNORED ON THE FUCKING SURGEON TABLE. Serena Williams almost died in childbirth. I can't believe you. This is the bottomless audacity,” said one tweet.

A second user shared, “Serena Williams almost died because she didn't take prenatals and is on drugs??? Maybe… it's his wife who is basing her care on these assumptions. Studies actually show drug use is highest among the most privileged, but move on.”

A third tweet read: “This all makes sense. I mean Serena Williams had severe complications when she was giving birth and who eats worse than the No. 1 tennis player in the world??” Another user called Berry's wife's claims “complete racist bullshit,” while another hoped she would be charged with violating the Hippocratic Oath.

Two years later, in 2019, Williams helped Mahmee, a technology company looking to transform prenatal and postnatal care for mothers and babies, raise $3 million.

A month before the couple welcomed their second daughter, Adira, in 2023, Alexis Ohanian, Williams' husband, told People they would “obviously exercise every precaution possible and do everything we can to make sure everything goes smoothly for Serena,” but he did not elaborate on what measures would be taken to ensure history does not repeat itself.

Additionally, on September 18, Berry told the tragic story of Amber Nicole Thurman, a Georgia mother who died in August 2022 from complications resulting from delayed medical care as a result of the state's abortion laws.

Thurman, who was six weeks pregnant, traveled to a clinic in North Carolina where she received abortion pills. A few days after the induction, she developed an infection, leaving some fetal tissue in her uterus.

The mother of one suffered severe blood loss and lost consciousness and went to Piedmont Henry Hospital. She required dilation and curettage, a procedure to empty the uterus of its contents, but was denied the care she needed for 20 hours.

While she was in the hospital, her organs failed before staff could intervene. Her death was ruled “preventable,” according to ProPublica. Georgia state law prohibits doctors from terminating pregnancies after the sixth week of pregnancy if the fetal heartbeat is detectable.

Berry insists that the black mother was “killed by an abortion doctor” who gave her the pills, not because she was denied life-saving surgery after she became ill.

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