Pregnant and unwed at 23, Noya Israel came face to face with a health care system that thought it knew her — and didn’t think much of her.
At her clinic, she felt judged for not being married, and dismissed because she was African-American. Her doctor, she said, would not look her in the eye and did a poor job answering her questions.
“I think I kind of fit a stereotype: young, unwed, black mom — ‘another one,’” she said, recalling her 2007 pregnancy. “The doctor didn’t really take me seriously. He never really connected, or even tried to connect.”
