{"id":171896,"date":"2024-06-15T13:03:51","date_gmt":"2024-06-15T17:03:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/?p=171896"},"modified":"2025-05-06T16:50:12","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T20:50:12","slug":"black-americans-mistrust-of-u-s-government-policies-on-family-and-reproductive-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/race-and-ethnicity\/2024\/06\/15\/black-americans-mistrust-of-u-s-government-policies-on-family-and-reproductive-health\/","title":{"rendered":"7. Black Americans\u2019 mistrust of U.S. government policies on family and reproductive health"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Editorial note to readers<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

A version of this study was originally published on June 10. We previously used the term \u201cracial conspiracy theories<\/a>\u201d as an editorial shorthand to describe a complex and mixed set of findings.\u00a0By using these words, our reporting distorted rather than clarified the point of the study.\u00a0Changes to this version include: an updated headline, new “explainer” paragraphs, some additional context and direct quotes from focus group participants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Claudia Deane, Mark Hugo Lopez and Neha Sahgal contributed to the revision of this report.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Aside from their beliefs about health and medicine in general, many Black adults believe the government intervenes in their decisions about partners and family planning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the introduction of social welfare programs in the mid-20th century, ideas about \u201cman in the house\u201d rules have circulated among the public. That is, various states required that women who received welfare payments not live or have sexual relationships with able-bodied men<\/a>, which dissuaded women from having or pursuing relationships with men while receiving benefits. If men were found in the home during a welfare home visit, the women would be accused of welfare fraud and their payments would end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These rules were struck down by the Supreme Court in 1968, but the association between poverty, welfare and government incentives for absent Black fathers remained<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, the idea that birth control and abortion are genocidal efforts<\/a> aimed at Black families and communities has a long history. Some Black political figures like Herman Cain and Ben Carson have controversially connected Planned Parenthood and its founder, Margaret Sanger, with efforts to eliminate the Black population through birth control and abortion. And some contemporary Black anti-abortion activists make similar claims<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n