(Photo by John Nacion/Variety via Getty Images) By Shelby Stewart ·Updated February 18, 2026 /> Getting your Trinity Audio player ready…

Clifton Powell is 69 years old and just now learning how to love.

That confession hit hard during the “Black Men Trust Black Women Roundtable,” convened by SisterSong Executive Director Monica Simpson to bring Black men into deeper accountability within the Reproductive Justice movement.

But honesty is not the same thing as repair. And repair is long overdue.

Black women are nearly three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white women, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Since the fall of

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