Neighborhood Proactive Policing and Racial Inequities in Preterm Birth in New Orleans, 2018‒2019.

This article examines the association between neighborhood exposure to proactive policing—a policing strategy involving discretionary stops of "suspicious persons" or vehicles—and preterm birth in New Orleans, Louisiana, as a manifestation of structural racism. Using linked birth records (n = 9,102) and police stop data from 2018–2019, the study found that Black birthing people were more likely than White birthing people to live in neighborhoods with high rates of proactive police stops, and among Black birthing people, those in neighborhoods with the highest stop rates had a 1.41 times greater prevalence of preterm birth compared to those in neighborhoods with the lowest rates. No statistically significant association was observed among White birthing people. The findings suggest that proactive policing may contribute to racial inequities in reproductive health, highlighting the need for alternative violence prevention strategies that do not rely on policing.