“Serena Williams’ Life in Danger as She Is Rushed to the Hospital, Asking Fans for Prayers.”

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.