Jessica L. Dozier, PhD, MPH, is a population health scientist and social and behavioral researcher whose interdisciplinary training spans global health, sexual and reproductive health, and women’s and gender studies. Dr. Dozier earned her PhD in public health from Johns Hopkins University and completed a President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Michigan, where she ...Read more >

My dissertation research examines reproductive decision-making among youth in foster care, focusing on contraception access, pregnancy recognition, and abortion decision-making. Youth in foster care experience disproportionately high rates of adolescent pregnancy, yet existing research provides limited insight into how they access reproductive healthcare or make decisions once pregnancy occurs. This gap is especially important because ...Read more >

The study explores how Spanish-speaking grantees of the Chicago Abortion Fund (CAF) experience abortion care within a rapidly shifting policy and immigration landscape. Although Illinois is recognized as a state with strong abortion protections, emerging post-Dobbs research shows that patients, particularly Spanish-speaking individuals, immigrants, and those traveling from out of state, continue to face structural ...Read more >

Arielle Schecter, MD is a family physician and fellow at Rutgers University in New Jersey. Through this proposed research project, Dr. Schecter seeks to leverage academic resources with her clinical training, public health background, and her commitment to building a healthier American South in the post-Dobbs abortion landscape. This mixed-methods study applies a social ecological ...Read more >

Medication abortion is a safe and effective method of pregnancy termination which now accounts for more than 60% of abortions in the US. Although prior studies have examined patient experiences and acceptability of medication abortion, most have focused on pregnancies under 77 days’ gestation. The limited qualitative research on medication abortion at later gestational durations ...Read more >

Claire Reardon is a rising fourth-year doctoral candidate at the University of Kentucky in the department of Sociology. Her research examines cross-state abortion travel to Illinois, and the effect of abortion bans on individuals’ perceived ability to access care. Using semi-structured telephone interviews with 30 participants recruited through Illinois clinic partnerships, this qualitative study examines ...Read more >

Intimate partner reproductive coercion (IPRC), a form of gender-based violence involving contraceptive sabotage, pregnancy pressure, and control of pregnancy outcomes, has recently been invoked in legal and policy arguments to restrict access to medication abortion. Some policymakers argue that mifepristone and telehealth-based abortion care enable abusive partners to coerce individuals into ending pregnancies, reframing abortion ...Read more >

Although spirituality and attitudes on abortion care have been reviewed in medical literature, few studies have examined this connection across different healthcare professions and specialties within the same academic institution. Additionally, hospital-based abortion care requires the assistance of many healthcare workers, many of whom have been overlooked in medical literature regarding their own beliefs and ...Read more >

Asian American youth are often omitted from sexual health research or characterized as a low-risk population, in part due to relatively lower levels of sexual activity. However, there is evidence that female Asian adolescents and young adults who are sexually active may be less likely to use condoms or effective contraception than their peers. Immigrant ...Read more >

Adolescents and young adults (AYAs) face compounded barriers to abortion care, most saliently in the US South where most states have implemented total or early gestational bans as well as parental involvement laws. Amid this context, AYAs in the South might increasingly be turning to medication abortion via telehealth (TMAB), yet documentation of best practices ...Read more >