Family planning is a field in which individual and public health goals are frequently aligned: when women receive patient-centered reproductive health care, the entire population benefits. As a National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded physician-scientist and family planning program director, I am committed to fueling the pipeline of investigators who will contribute to high-impact reproductive ...Read more >

A healthcare system in which 37-51% of women who desire postpartum sterilization are unable to obtain one due to a lack of a valid signed Medicaid consent form is not delivering patient-centered, medically-appropriate, nor ethically-sound care. Sensitive, thoughtful, and careful considerations are required when approaching this topic due to its complex social and cultural backdrop. ...Read more >

Background: Patient-centered communication about medical and surgical early abortion methods is central to women’s satisfaction with their abortion care experience. Indeed, women value its core principles—receiving quality information, establishing rapport with health professionals, and expressing their preferences—when making decisions about early abortion methods. Yet, in a time of growing inaccessibility to abortion services, biased resources, ...Read more >

Women in the US face an increasingly hostile climate towards abortion. Many now live in states where their ability to exercise their right to choose is in jeopardy. Focusing on Texas, my overarching goal is to inform strategies to increase access to safe medical abortion outside the formal healthcare setting (OFHS) via two routes: 1) ...Read more >

Adolescent pregnancy prevention is a public health priority. Most adolescents rely on condoms, with fewer using effective hormonal methods, such as combined oral contraceptive pills (COCs). One reason is that hormonal methods other than emergency contraception (EC) require a provider visit, a barrier for adolescents who may not have transportation, may not have money, or ...Read more >

Background: The number of Bhutanese refugees in the US continues to grow with insufficient knowledge of current family planning practices of this community. Refugee women face additional barriers that prevent them from obtaining adequate healthcare. Methods: We analyzed the current attitudes and practices regarding pregnancy, contraception, social norms, and abortion in the Bhutanese community. A ...Read more >

For this Junior Investigator Career Development Grant, I completed a rigorous research and training program to develop my skills conducting abortion-related research. For my research project, I joined a team of collaborators at the University of California, San Francisco and in Nepal on two abortion research studies, one examining the experiences of Nepali women who ...Read more >

This study is a history of the development and subsequent resurgence of the occupational role of abortion counseling, a role that initially emerged in the early 1970s, before Roe v. Wade. This research is guided, in theoretical terms, by the approach to the study of occupations associated with the Chicago School of Sociology and in ...Read more >

In South Africa, abortion is legal for several indications up to 20 weeks gestation, and approximately 25%-30% of all abortions take place in the second trimester. Most public sector second trimester procedures are performed by medical induction with misoprostol alone, although in the Western Cape Province, a team of roving doctors provides dilation and evacuation. ...Read more >

Background: High-risk sexual behavior, including unprotected sex, is highly prevalent in adolescents (13-17 years old) and exposes them to unintended pregnancy, HIV, and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Two explanations for why young people are more likely to engage in high-risk sexual behavior are that individuals do not perceive themselves to be at risk, and ...Read more >