Objectives: We explored the role that reproductive stigmas play in decision-making when faced with an unintended pregnancy among young low-income women in Birmingham, Alabama. Methods: We conducted six focus groups with low-income women aged 19-24 attending health department clinics and a community college (n=34). Using the focus group findings and our existing abortion stigma survey ...Read more >

Objectives: Women have several timely options to obtain emergency contraception (EC) by prescription to increase their chances of preventing pregnancy. Little is known about population-based EC utilization and reproductive health outcomes. Methods: Data was abstracted from electronic health records to compare characteristics and reproductive health outcomes of 24,547 women age 15-44 who obtained at least ...Read more >

In recent years, the US has seen a decrease in both the number of abortion clinics and annual incidence of abortion. Reasons for this include increased use of long-acting reversible contraceptive (LARC) methods, closing of abortion clinics, and restrictive laws preventing some women from accessing desired abortions. Recent studies demonstrate that Targeted Regulation of Abortion ...Read more >

Stigma threatens the health of people who need abortion care and their communities directly through transient psychological distress, and indirectly by preventing healthful behaviors such as social support-seeking and utilization of medically safe services. Stigma also underpins public policies that erect structural barriers to abortion care. Over the last several decades, public health researchers and ...Read more >

Though important progress has been made toward advancing women-centered, rights-based family planning since the 1994 ICPD in Cairo, the indicators that we use to evaluate family planning remain stubbornly focused on the pre-Cairo agenda of contraceptive coverage and fertility. The lack of a macro-level indicator that captures what women actually want may create perverse incentives ...Read more >

The 52 mg levonorgestrel-releasing intrauterine system (LNG-IUS) is a highly effective method of contraception, but its use is often associated with early “nuisance bleeding” which may lead to discontinuation. Many medications have been studied with progestin-only contraceptives such as the LNG-IUS to manage irregular bleeding. The only study to demonstrate a sustained reduction in bleeding ...Read more >

The goals of this study are to assess client preferences and provider perceptions of reproductive intention screening and contraceptive decision-making during primary care visits in New York State (NYS). These goals were developed collaboratively during Phase I using the Delphi Method with over 30 stakeholders, including primary care and reproductive health providers, NYS and City ...Read more >

Texas House Bill 2 (HB2), enacted in 2013, placed targeted restrictions on abortion providers which resulted in closure of more than half of the state’s abortion clinics. Using patient-level data from approximately 60,000 patients seeking care at eight abortion clinics in the state before and after passage of HB2, we will evaluate differences in travel ...Read more >

The obesity epidemic has been accompanied by an exponential increase in weight-reduction surgery. Nearly half of bariatric surgery patients are reproductive age women. While weight reduction surgery is associated with increased fertility, pregnancy in the post-operative period can result in maternal and fetal complications. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Society ...Read more >

Background: More than two decades of research has shown associations among partner violence, reproductive control, and detrimental sexual and reproductive health outcomes including lower use of condoms and other contraceptives, higher rates of sexually transmitted infections, HIV, urinary tract infections, unintended and teen pregnancies, and poor birth outcomes as well as miscarriage due to physical ...Read more >