American women today are 50 percent more likely than their mothers to die during childbirth. That stunning fact underpins the growing crisis in the United States, sexual, reproductive, and maternal health care system, even as maternal mortality rates steadily decline in all other developed nations. The crisis is even more acute African-American and Native-American mothers, who are nearly three times more likely to die due to pregnancy-related complications than non-Hispanic white mothers. Legislators, health-care providers, and activists are embroiled in debates over Title X provisions and access to reproductive health care, including abortion. How do we end this preventable descent in preventable mortality? Is the American health care system equipped to provide equitable reproductive care to all Americans, irrespective of their race, gender identities, sexuality, socioeconomic status, and geography? How can we center patients in the ongoing debate on reproductive health care?