Seismic shifts in the abortion access landscape: The abortion access worker experience
Abortion
Awarded 2022
Emerging Scholars in Family Planning
Lily Nathan, MA
The New School for Social Research
$4,400

Lily Nathan’s research project, Seismic shifts in the abortion access landscape: The abortion access worker experience, is a qualitative study of abortion access workers’ experiences and challenges. Abortion access workers–those who staff or volunteer for abortion funds and practical support organizations–constitute a critical component of the abortion access infrastructure, especially as they facilitate abortions for people who have less access to resources. This population has not been studied to date, and shedding light on their experiences, challenges, and needs is particularly vital during this critical time for abortion access; abortion funds and practical support organizations are bound to be more relied upon than ever should Roe be overturned. Nathan has a varied, multidisciplinary background having worked in public and private education settings and studied the humanities with an interdisciplinary approach at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. What ties her work together is a commitment to understanding the world through people’s lived experiences and her passion for contributing to the world by doing meaningful, rigorous work. Nathan is also an activist; she co-founded and currently co-chair the local grassroots organization BKForge, Brooklyn For Reproductive and Gender Equity, which engages fellow Brooklynites in policy advocacy, issue education, and promoting progressive candidates. After working in education for over ten years, is pursuing a career in Clinical Psychology, and am currently a student at the New School for Social Research. She considers herself a qualitative researcher and her areas of focus include reproductive identity, reproductive justice, and issues of feminist and critical psychology.