Objective: To investigate the effect of state-mandated abortion counseling requirements intended to dissuade women from having abortions on patients’ individual-level abortion stigma. Methods: We randomized women presenting for abortion to complete a demographic survey and the validated Individual Level Abortion Stigma (ILAS) scale either before (unexposed) or after (exposed) hearing the mandatory Pennsylvania Abortion Control ...Read more >

Objectives: The crucial question facing the contemporary abortion rights movement is why the gay and lesbian movement is winning and abortion rights is losing. Comparisons generally locate their divergent trajectories in the intrinsic nature of each movement’s claim, but research has not investigated how the histories and structures of each matter for their respective outcomes. ...Read more >

Objectives: We aimed to determine if an innovative system-level intervention offering postpartum women contraceptive counseling and provision in conjunction with their infant’s well-baby visit (WBV) increases utilization rates of long-acting reversible contraception, and describe facilitators and barriers to implementation. Methods: We conducted a randomized controlled trial among women bringing their infants (4.5 months of age ...Read more >

Objectives: To expand my research program in abortion and mental health through working with Danish population registries data. The mental health outcomes we are examining include antidepressant use, suicide attempts, and suicide. Methods: Using Danish population registries, we conducted survival analysis to examine risk of antidepressant use, suicide attempts, and suicide around a first abortion ...Read more >

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 >