America has a Black sperm donor shortage
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 21 October 2022
⏱️ 26 minutes
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Summary
Only 2 percent of sperm donors in the United States are Black. This, in turn, leaves many aspiring Black parents with an agonizing choice: choose a donor of another race or try to buy sperm from unregulated apps and online groups.
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Post reporter Amber Ferguson has spent months reporting on why so few Black men donate sperm. She found that the reasons for the shortage are myriad: failure of sperm banks to recruit Black donors; a selection process that demands a three-generation medical history and excludes donors with felony convictions; mistrust of the medical profession by Black men because of a legacy of historical discrimination. The result is a severe shortage, and intense competition for Black men’s sperm.
“If it's a White woman, she could just so easily get a sperm donor,” Ferguson says. “And if it doesn't work, she can get another one. She can get another one. For a Black woman, if she is lucky enough to find a Black donor, it's really maybe one of her only chances.”
For Black gay men who want to donate sperm, there are even more restrictions.
Transcript
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| 0:48.0 | To me and my head is kind of like dating a little bit. |
| 0:50.8 | Like, you're literally sitting now and you're kind of just figuring out if you like this person |
| 0:55.4 | and if you want this to be potentially the other half of your child. |
| 1:02.6 | This is Reese Brooks. |
| 1:04.2 | She's 29 years old and she's a black lesbian living in Newark, Delaware. |
| 1:08.6 | Reese has been so ready to be a parent for so long. |
| 1:13.1 | And she says, if you think dating is hard, imagine spending hundreds of hours on top of |
| 1:19.1 | a regular full-time job, searching sperm banks. |
| 1:22.3 | That's what Reese did. |
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