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 demise during childbirth.
Research has proven that the mortality rate of maternal Black women is twice as high as that of white women. In 2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that for every 100,000 live births, there were 70 deaths of Black mothers.
On Sept. 18, Joel Berry, managing editor of Christian news satire site The Babylon Bee, spurred an outcry from users with a since-deleted post that read: “My wife is a labor and delivery nurse and I can tell you with certainty that their mortality rate is higher because they refuse to get prenatal care, they take drugs at a higher rate, they refuse to eat the right diet, and they overall take worse care of themselves.”
Enraged defenders of Black women were quick to point out that the tennis great advocating for herself was what saved her life. After undergoing an emergency cesarean section, Williams developed life-threatening complications, including blood clots in her lungs and legs. She also experienced heavy coughing, which resulted in her C-section wound rupturing.
The sports icon spoke openly about the frightening ordeal in a 2018 interview with “Today.” She said that her persistent requests for a CT scan led doctors to discover the embolisms. “I can’t believe how much went wrong on the way to meeting her. … I almost died,” said Williams.
She also revealed her terrifying birth story in the HBO documentary “Being Serena,” which was released that same year. The 23-time Grand Slam winner also informed her medical team that she was more likely to experience the potentially lethal clots after being on her stricken by an embolism in 2011.
Online, reactions to the MAGA supporter appeared in droves, with many pointing to the Williams’ story to debunk his claims. “The greatest athlete of all time IS BEING IGNORED ON THE F—KING SURGEON’S TABLE. Serena Williams almost f—king died in childbirth. I can’t believe y’all. The unmitigated GALL,” read one tweet.
A second user shared, “Serena Williams nearly died bc she didn’t take prenatals and uses drugs??? Maybe… it’s his wife who may base her care on these assumptions. Studies actually show drug use the highest among the most privileged, but carry on.”
Berry is “pro-life” and swears he isn’t racist. And I wouldn’t want his wife handling any black woman’s pregnancy, given these thoughts. https://t.co/VQ3QySxI7K
— @ijbailey (@ijbailey) September 20, 2024
A third tweet read, “It all makes sense. I mean, Serena Williams had serious complications in her birth experience, and who eats worse than the #1 world tennis player??” Another user called Berry’s wife’s claims “complete racist bullsh*t” as another individual hoped she would face a lawsuit for violating the Hippocratic Oath.
Two years later, in 2019, Williams helped Mahmee, a tech company hoping to transform prenatal and postnatal care for mother and child, raise $3 million.
A month before the couple welcomed their second daughter, Adira, in 2023, Alexis Ohanian, Williams’ husband, told People they were “obviously taking every precaution and doing everything we can to make sure everything goes smoothly for Serena,” though he did not elaborate on measures being taken to ensure history did not repeat itself.
Another viral lie. Amber Nicole Thurman went septic after taking an abortion pill, which failed to remove all the contents of her uterus. She didn't receive timely follow-up care from the abortionist and died. Georgia law did not prohibit the care she needed. Georgia law didn't… pic.twitter.com/nhJvgw1nNh
— Joel Berry (@JoelWBerry) September 18, 2024
Also, on Sept. 18, Berry went on to share the tragic story of Amber Nicole Thurman, a Georgia mother who passed away in August 2022 from complications that arose from delayed medical care as a result of the state’s anti-abortion laws.
Thurman, who was six weeks pregnant, traveled to a North Carolina clinic where she was provided abortion pills. Days after inducing the end of her pregnancy, she developed an infection with some of the fetal tissue remaining in her uterus.
The mother of one experienced heavy blood loss and loss of consciousness, which led her to seek medical treatment at Piedmont Henry Hospital. She required dilation and curettage, a procedure to clear the uterus of its contents, but was denied the care she needed for 20 hours.
This young mother from Georgia was killed by an abortionist. She ran into traffic on the way to the abortion clinic, and they refused to hold her spot for a surgical abortion. Instead, they sent her home with mifepristone and misoprostol abortion pills, which made her go septic… https://t.co/H8fvm2wmq7
— Joel Berry (@JoelWBerry) September 18, 2024
While in the hospital, her organs failed before staff moved to intervene. Her death was deemed “preventable,” according to ProPublica. Georgia law prohibits doctors from terminating pregnancies after six weeks, a point of gestation in which the fetus has a detectable heartbeat.
Berry insists that the Black mother was “killed by an abortionist” who provided her with the pills, not because she was denied a life-saving procedure after falling ill.
