Key takeaway: Doulas can provide critical support in the navigation of immigrant experiences in the U.S., including and beyond pregnancy. Their work with immigrant and refugee communities enriches clients’ lives and improves maternal and child health outcomes. Revised policies and programming for more holistic perinatal services are needed to facilitate their expansive scope of work.

Women’s Health

February 2026

Key takeaway: Young people in the U.S. Southeast experience structural, financial, personal, and COVID-19 pandemic–related barriers to accessing abortion care. Abortion funds present an opportunity to reduce these barriers and address inequities in abortion access and associated social and health systems.

BMC Public Health

December 2025

Key takeaway: Self-managed abortion (SMA) has been increasingly criminalised since the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson ruling. SMA-related media coverage frequently vilifies the criminalized person and promotes the presumption of guilt, making media a likely contributor to adverse legal outcomes. This research demonstrates the pressing need for more responsible news journalism about SMA criminalization.

Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters

November 2025

Key finding: Expanded access to contraceptives is associated with increased use of preventive sexual and reproductive health resources, yet sociodemographic factors influence individuals’ ability to access these services. State-level policies expanding contraceptive access can mitigate broader inequities in accessing sexual health care.

Contraception

October 2025

Key takeaway: Endometriosis has been routinely underdiagnosed, underreported, and under-researched among U.S. Black women. Centering Black women’s experiences and quality of life in endometriosis research and clinical care is necessary to promote nuanced, culturally responsive, and patient-centered care.

BMC Women’s Health

August 2025

Key takeaway: Despite abortion being a common healthcare experience, professionals in sexual and reproductive health-related fields lack access to comprehensive abortion education courses and training. Abortion education should be increasingly incorporated into higher education curricula to better prepare professionals.

American Journal of Sexuality Education

July 2025

Key takeaway: Rural communities face significant disparities in accessing perinatal care due to perinatal and social service gaps, poverty reducing care options, long travel distances for clients and care providers, and childbirth education disparities. Evidence-based policies for expanding and funding doula services could improve rural maternal and child health outcomes.

Women’s Health Reports

June 2025

Key finding: There is no significant increase in abortion complications for people with higher body weight. Referring people with higher body weights to hospitals is not an evidence-based practice and delays their access to time-sensitive care.

Obstetrics & Gynecology

March 2025

Key takeaway: Our article details how people, communities, and organizations in restrictive abortion policy settings—and especially those living and working in the South—continue to strive for fuller realization of reproductive autonomy, and adaptably and creatively exercise collective action in its pursuit.

American Journal of Public Health

October 2024

Key finding: Our study shows that TGE patients face unique barriers when seeking abortions (e.g., lack of provider knowledge, in-clinic stigmatization, gender marginalization) and provides an accessible and context-specific starting point for clinicians to build gender-inclusive abortion spaces.

Reproductive Health

September 2024

Key takeaway: Georgia doulas identified challenges (e.g., inaccessibility for people of lower income) and solutions (e.g., sliding scale fees, Medicaid reimbursement, community health worker models) that could improve doula care access to reduce maternal and infant morbidity and mortality in the state.

Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health

August 2023

Key takeaway: Black doulas provide essential and supportive services to Black birthing people, including buffering against obstetric racism, and those services are more urgently needed than ever following the overturn of Roe v. Wade.

PLOS ONE

June 2023

Key finding: Georgia’s 22-week ban interferes with provision of quality, patient-centered healthcare and has negative and inequitable consequences for patients and providers, despite abortion providers’ resilience and commitment.

Contraception

May 2023

Key finding: We found that fewer abortions are likely accessible in Georgia among Black people, younger people, and people with less education under House Bill 481, Georgia’s “six-week” abortion ban, demonstrating the inequitable nature of the ban.

JAMA Network Open

March 2023

Key findings: Doulas of all kinds center reproductive autonomy (and voice support for abortion doula care) but don’t consistently view contraceptive counseling as within the doula scope of work. Community-based abortion and full-spectrum doulas provide diverse and beneficial services, and offer creative solutions to challenges like stigma and abortion restrictions.

Frontiers in Global Women's Health

March 2023

Key takeaway: Integrating family planning into primary care may expand access to low-income and underserved populations. Approaches that incorporate flexibility and provide tailored resources for primary care settings may be particularly important for helping to implement Title X services in these settings.

Women’s Health Issues

December 2022

Key takeaway: COVID-19 severely impacted access to provision of doula care, mostly due to economic hardship for clients and restrictive hospital policies. At the same time, doulas and their clients have been resourceful—using virtual technology, innovative payment models, and home births.

Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters

November 2022

Key finding: Our study revealed interrelated and intersectional barriers to medication abortion for Black and Latinx women, including barriers rooted in marginalization, stigma, and mistrust. Our findings also contribute new insights as Black and Latinx participants presented numerous solutions rooted in equity, respect, resilience, and trust.

Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters

November 2022

Key takeaway: Health educators must work toward integrated abortion education across public health education curricula—normalizing abortion-related conversation across health education settings (classroom, clinical, public, etc.)—and engage the support of institutional and professional leaders.

Health Education & Behavior

September 2022

Key finding: Our study revealed significant racial disparities in options counseling and referral, with Black clients being less likely to receive information about abortion and more likely to leave the clinic with an unmet need for abortion referral. The findings highlight why it is important to offer all options to every client, every time.

Health Services Research

August 2022

Key finding: Community-led reproductive justice research offers innovative and transformational methods for truly advancing SRH equity in an era of increasing policy restrictions and decreasing access to care, particularly for marginalized communities including Black and Latinx/a/e people.

Frontiers in Global Women's Health

August 2022

Key finding: Suggestions for improving provider recruitment and retention include cooperation between professional organizations, training programs, and healthcare institutions to create opportunities for training and networking and encourage abortion-supportive organizational and policy environments.

Maternal and Child Health Journal

January 2022

Key finding: Ways to support family planning staff include providing development opportunities, commitment from leadership to recognize and invest in staff and supporting self-care.

Maternal and Child Health Journal

January 2022

Key finding: Increases in abortion restrictions are associated with poor infant health outcomes, including preterm birth and low birthweight.

Women’s Health Issues

November 2021

Key finding: There are linkages between abortion stigma and stigma against sexual/gender minorities among Southern religious leaders. However, there is also support for abortion and LGBTQ inclusivity.

Sexuality Research and Social Policy

November 2021

Key finding: Abortion restrictions likely increase the risk of preterm birth and low birth weight infants, and these effects disproportionately affect Black individuals.

BMC Health Services Research

October 2021

Key finding: Georgia’s 22-week gestational age limit had stronger negative effects on Black people seeking abortions.

Women’s Health Issues

October 2021

Key finding: Despite the arguments and evidence presented during the legislative session, legislators voted according to their previously held beliefs on abortion.

Journal of the Georgia Public Health Association

June 2021

Key finding: Those seeking help from abortion funds face disproportionate, intersecting barriers to abortion access.

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

April 2021

Key finding: Parental involvement mandates undermine health service delivery and quality for young people seeking abortion services in the Southeast.

Sexuality Research and Social Policy

February 2021

Key finding: Religious leaders hold diverse attitudes and beliefs about abortion, rooted in Christian scripture and doctrine, and may struggle to integrate their knowledge and training across pastoral care and ethical issues related to abortion.

PLOS One

July 2020

Key finding: Georgia’s 22-week gestational age limit may be adversely affecting access to necessary and desired abortion services for pregnant people across the state and region.

American Journal of Public Health

July 2020

Key finding: To pass a 6-week abortion ban, Georgia legislators used the “heartbeat” as an indicator of life and therefore personhood; attempted to create a new class of persons—fetuses in utero—entitled to legal protection; and argued to expand state protections for fetuses as a matter of state sovereignty and rights.

Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters

January 2020