Historically, women are disproportionately impacted by pandemic illness and COVID-19 is no exception. Addressing domestic violence (DV) and access to reproductive healthcare may reduce the gendered impact of COVID-19. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, we piloted a program to enhance reproductive health literacy, Sexual Health Empowerment for Birth Control (SHE-BC). This program may offer insights to… Read More »
Mass incarceration is a true epidemic. It is also one fueled by social determinants, including race. Over the past four decades of “war on drugs” and “tough on crime” policies, the US incarceration rate has increased by over 500% [pdf]. There are over 2 million men and women in jails and prisons across the country… Read More »
Title X, a program that provides federal dollars to be used for family planning services, is under siege. The public comment period ended July 31, 2018, and now we wait to see how funding changes for Title X unfold. Title X is a critical program that provides essential reproductive health services to women, created by… Read More »
Many women in the United States will be sexually assaulted during their lifetimes. And the aftermath of sexual assault impacts women health long after the assault itself. Survivors of sexual assault have been shown to have a greater increase in psychiatric disorders directly after their assaults than patients who have not been assaulted. Other research… Read More »
The unintended pregnancy rate (reflecting pregnancies that are unwanted or mistimed) for women in the U.S. has hovered at around 50% for the last 35 years. Only recently has that rate dropped to 45%, but the burden continues to fall most heavily on poor, undereducated women, women from racial or ethnic minority backgrounds, and young women. Much talk… Read More »