Female permanent contraception (PC, formerly sterilization) is the most common contraceptive method in the US and is often requested during the postpartum period. However, many patients—especially those with public insurance or other markers of marginalization—do not receive desired postpartum PC. In West Virginia (WV), recent policy changes, including heightened abortion restrictions, federal Medicaid rule modifications, ...Read more >

In response to the post-Dobbs policy landscape and the growing cultural and linguistic diversity in South Dakota, three community-based organizations funded by the SFP launched the Pasque Project, a community-driven initiative designed to better understand reproductive health needs in SD. As part of this effort, Pasque Project leaders conducted a qualitative study exploring immigrant women’s ...Read more >

Advanced practice clinicians (APCs), including nurse practitioners, midwives, and physician associates, play an important but often unrecognized role in the provision of clinician-provided abortion care in the United States. The most recent quantitative national data on the volume of abortion care provided by APCs is from 2014, which indicate that APCs provided at least some ...Read more >

While midwives are authorized to provide abortion care in 24 states and DC, their role in abortion provision remains largely invisible or underrepresented in national surveillance efforts. Abortion care provided by midwives, who were among the first abortion providers in this country, has been firmly established as safe, effective, and acceptable. To ensure accurate surveillance ...Read more >

Abortion surveillance in the U.S. has historically focused on facilities rather than the clinicians who provide care. In the wake of the Dobbs decision and the rapidly shifting abortion landscape, understanding who delivers abortion care is essential for training, supporting, and sustaining this critical workforce where abortion remains legal. This secondary data analysis will use ...Read more >

The need for well-trained abortion providers is greater than ever for all and dire for the most marginalized communities whose health outcomes worsen as abortion access further dwindles. Patients from such communities have better health outcomes when clinicians reflect them demographically. These clinicians, most often those underrepresented in medicine (URiM), BIPOC, and/or those in primary ...Read more >

Access to abortion depends in large part on the workforce of clinicians who provide it, but there is significant variation in this workforce. The Dobbs v Jackson decision in June 2022 resulted in massive changes in the ability to provide abortion care, and updated data is critical to our understanding of abortion access. This study ...Read more >

Aline Vandenbroeck holds a B.S and M.S. in Economics and is a doctoral candidate in Health Policy & Administration at the University of Illinois Chicago. Coming from Belgium—where broad access to contraception contrasts with relatively restrictive abortion laws (including a 12-week limit and mandatory waiting periods)—and arriving in the U.S. just two months after the ...Read more >

Access to medication abortion through on-campus health centers may have significant implications for student success and well-being, yet this relationship remains underexplored. As college students face increasingly outsized legal, geographic, and institutional barriers to accessing care, understanding this impact on the student experience is increasingly urgent. While some states have responded to federal abortion bans ...Read more >

Mayrose Porter was in medical school in Texas when the Dobbs decision was announced and stripped her fellow Texans of their right to access abortion. A life-long Southerner with a penchant for international travel, she went to college in Louisiana and studied public health in Thailand before returning to Houston for her medical degree with ...Read more >