Carole Joffe, PhD

Carole Joffe is a professor at ANSIRH and a professor of sociology emerita at the University of California, Davis. Her research focuses on the social dimensions of reproductive health, with a particular interest in abortion provision. Her latest book with David S. Cohen, After Dobbs: How the Supreme Court ended Roe but not Abortion (Penguin Random House), was released in 2025. Her other books include Obstacle Course: The Everyday Struggle to get an Abortion in America (University of California Press) with Cohen; Reproduction and Society: Interdisciplinary Readings (Routledge Press) co-edited with Jennifer Reich; Dispatches from the Abortion Wars: The Costs of Fanaticism to Doctors, Patients, and the Rest of Us (Beacon Press); Doctors of Conscience: The Struggle to Provide Abortion Before and after Roe v. Wade (Beacon Press) and The Regulation of Sexuality: Experiences of Family Planning Workers (Temple University Press). Besides writing for an academic audience, she also writes frequently for the general public on the topics of reproductive health and reproductive politics, and has published op-eds, blog posts and letters in such venues as the New York Times, Washington Post, Huffington Post, The Hill and Rewire. In 2017, Dr. Joffe was awarded the Christopher Tietze Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Abortion Federation; in 2015, the David Gunn Lifetime Achievement Award by the Abortion Care Network; and in 2013, the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Society of Family Planning. Additionally in 2010, she was named the Irwin Cushner Lecturer by the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals; in 2006, Dr. Joffe was awarded the Public Service Award by the Academic Senate of the University of California, Davis; in 2022, Dr. Joffe was named Distinguished Emeriti of the Year by the University of California, Davis; and in 2025, Dr. Joffe received the Distinguished Career Award for the Practice of Sociology from the American Sociological Association. She has served two terms on the Board of Directors of the National Abortion Federation. Dr. Joffe received her BA from Brandeis University and her PhD from the University of California, Berkeley.