As members of the Mount Sinai Health System’s Women’s Services and the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Science, we stand in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement.

In our country, we see how police brutality, mass incarceration, and racial bias threaten our patients’ health and wellbeing. In our city, we see how systemic oppression of people of color has created an unjust healthcare system. In our community, we see how racism has led to disparate rates of black maternal mortality. In our history, we see how the unjust treatment of people of color has spanned centuries, and that deliberate anti-racist work within our own healthcare system is long overdue. 

To our patients and colleagues: We see you. But this is not enough. We will advocate for you, and commit ourselves to the following concrete practices in the service of anti-racism:

• We will acknowledge the dignity of every person, in order to provide care that is free from bias or judgement.
• We will listen to the voices of our patients who have been discounted in the past.
• We will empathize with patients and colleagues as we work, in order to create a more just environment.
• We will focus on and build mindful relationships among our colleagues and our patients, in order to be allied in our cause.
• We will examine the roots of the disparities pervasive in our country’s medical care, in order to fight for an anti-racist healthcare delivery system.

Finally, it is our privilege to be trusted with your wellbeing. Please don’t hesitate to tell us how we can be better advocates and activists.