Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

The Public Health Turn In Reproductive Rights, Rachel Rebouché

Washington and Lee Law Review

Over the last decade, public health research has demonstrated the short-term, long-term, and cumulative costs of delayed or denied abortion care. These costs are imposed on people who share common characteristics: abortion patients are predominantly low income and disproportionately people of color. Public health evidence, by establishing how law contributes to the scarcity of services and thereby entrenches health disparities, has vividly highlighted the connections between abortion access, race, and income. The contemporary attention to abortion law’s relationship to inequality is no accident: researchers, lawyers, and advocates have built an infrastructure for generating credible empirical studies of abortion restrictions’ effects. …

Decreasing Unintentional Pregnancies For Tennesseans, Paula M. Todd

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In 2018, 49% of all pregnancies in the United States were unintended, with women with a lower- income status being five times more likely to experience an unplanned pregnancy. Tennessee has a high rate of unintended pregnancies, particularly among the uninsured, low-income, and rural teen populations; some 22% of these unintended pregnancies end in abortion. Oral or transdermal contraceptives that are affordable and accessible for women of childbearing age can reduce unintentional pregnancies. The addressed gap in clinical practice was that contraceptives are not currently available over the counter in Tennessee pharmacies without a prescription, which necessitates a costly medical …

The Hidden Child: Analyzing The Cyclical Nature Of Statelessness And Violations Of Reproductive Autonomy, Simone Lieban Levine, Kelsey J. Peden

The Journal of International Relations, Peace Studies, and Development

Statelessness is a reproductive justice issue. When states explicitly or implicitly regulate or restrict reproduction, it results in children being born into statelessness. When there is a risk that a child will be born into statelessness, it both impacts the parents’ ability to parent with dignity and can have a chilling effect on the parents’ decision to have a child in the first place. In this way, statelessness results both in and from violations of reproductive autonomy. To combat statelessness, the international human rights community must use a reproductive justice lens to examine the ways that policies related to regulating …

An Examination Of Oppression Via Anti-Abortion Legislation, Saphronia P. Carson

The Pegasus Review: UCF Undergraduate Research Journal

Significant disparities in reproductive health care access and outcomes exist along race, ethnicity, and income lines. One of the starkest examples of this is the dramatic reduction in abortion access over the past 45 years that disproportionately affects minority and low-income women. While existing literature has exposed these disparities and potential reasons for them, there is less attention to the ways reduced access to reproductive health care, specifically abortion, can coerce, exploit, and systematically oppress women of color and low-income women. This research uses a reproductive justice framework to discuss the impact of anti-abortion legislation and the anti-abortion movement on …

How The Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic Is Impacting Sexual And Reproductive Health And Rights And Response: Results From A Global Survey Of Providers, Researchers, And Policy-Makers, Margit Endler, Taghreed Al-Haidari, Chiara Benedetto, Sameena Chowdhury, Jan Christilaw, Faysal El Kak, Diana Galimberti, Claudia Garcia-Moreno, Miguel Gutierrez, Marleen Temmerman

Obstetrics and Gynaecology, East Africa

Introduction: We aimed to give a global overview of trends in access to sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and what is being done to mitigate its impact.

Material and methods: We performed a descriptive analysis and content analysis based on an online survey among clinicians, researchers, and organizations. Our data were extracted from multiple-choice questions on access to SRHR services and risk of SRHR violations, and written responses to open-ended questions on threats to access and required response.

Results: The survey was answered by 51 people representing 29 …

Perspectives On Self-Managed Abortion Among Providers In Hospitals Along The Texas– Mexico Border, Sarah Raifman, Sarah E. Baum, Kari White, Kristine Hopkins, Tony Ogburn, Daniel Grossman

School of Medicine Publications and Presentations

Background

Following self-managed abortion (SMA), or a pregnancy termination attempt outside of the formal health system, some patients may seek care in an emergency department. Information about provider experiences treating these patients in hospital settings on the Texas-Mexico border is lacking.

Methods

The study team conducted semi-structured interviews with physicians, advanced practice clinicians, and nurses who had experience with patients presenting with early pregnancy complications in emergency and/or labor and delivery departments in five hospitals near the Texas-Mexico border. Interview questions focused on respondents’ roles at the hospital, knowledge of abortion services and laws, perspectives on SMA trends, experiences treating …

Second-Trimester Abortion Dangertalk, Greer Donley, Jill Wieber Lens

Articles

Abortion rights are more vulnerable now than they have been in decades. This Article focuses specifically on the most assailable subset of those rights: the right to a pre-viability, second-trimester abortion. Building on Carhart v. Gonzales, where the Supreme Court upheld a federal ban on a safe and effective second-trimester abortion procedure, states have passed new second-trimester abortion restrictions that rely heavily on the woman-protective rationale—the idea that the restrictions will benefit women. These newer second-trimester abortion restrictions include bans on the Dilation & Evacuation (D&E) procedure, bans on disability-selective abortions, and mandatory perinatal hospice and palliative care counseling …

“It Didn’T Matter What The Bill Said...”: Influences On Abortion Policy Legislative Decision-Making In Georgia, Erica Barton, Subasri Narasimhan, Dabney P. Evans

Journal of the Georgia Public Health Association

Background: In March 2019 the Georgia legislature passed HB 481 described as a “heartbeat bill”, prohibiting abortion at around six weeks gestation. Given the prevalence of anti-abortion legislation and the public health implications of abortion restrictions, we sought to understand how Georgia legislators made decisions on this early abortion ban legislation.

Methods: We conducted in-depth interviews with nine legislators from the Georgia House of Representatives who participated in the 2019 legislative session. In-depth interviews were conducted in-person and over the phone. Interview recordings were transcribed verbatim and inductive codes identified. Codes focused primarily on views of: abortion in general; specific …