Annual Research Highlights 2024

Publications

In 2024, ANSIRH researchers contributed 80+ peer-reviewed publications to the field. These articles appeared in the most respected journals of reproductive health, global health, public health, and beyond. Below is a list of links to summaries for selected 2024 publications. To access the full list of publications, visit our Research and Tools page and select Research Publications in the right-hand dropdown. 

• Abortion Restrictions:
  • Abortion seekers are at higher risk of incurring catastrophic health expenditures
  • Post-Dobbs, media depicts more barriers to abortion access
  • Care Post-Roe: How post-Roe laws are obstructing clinical care
  • The impact of Dobbs on abortion clinics
  • Abortion care delays are associated with higher levels of stress, anxiety, and depression
• ​Medication Abortion and Telehealth Abortion:
  • New study shows medication abortion without ultrasound to be safe
  • Abortion pills by mail are safe and effective, study shows
  • Telehealth medication abortion is just as safe and effective as in-person care
• Self-Managed Abortion
  • Experiences of medical mistreatment and mistrust are associated with increased likelihood of having ever considered self-managing an abortion
  • New research shows that self-managed abortion increased in the aftermath of the Dobbs decision
• ​Reproductive Health Science:
  • Abortion Onscreen in 2024
  • Researchers at 17 institutions call on journals to correct or retract flawed studies
  • HHS Sec. Xavier Becerra thanks ANSIRH experts for abortion research
  • Leading reproductive health researchers urge the Supreme Court to trust science
  • ANSIRH's Diana Greene Foster delivers TED Talk on The Turnaway Study
  • The importance of “booster” sex education

Media articles featuring ANSIRH

In 2024, our work was featured in 360+ media articles. A few highlights are listed below. Please see our website for a curated list of media articles.

• Safety issues with medication abortion are extremely rare, experts emphasize (CNN)
• Women in states with bans are getting abortions at similar rates as under Roe, report says (AP News)
• The Unlikely Women Fighting for Abortion Rights (The New York Times)
• Receiving Abortion Medication Through Mail Was Safe, Effective (JAMA Network)
• Anti-Abortion Laws Linked To Increase In Domestic Violence Deaths, Study Shows (Huffington Post)
• In spite of abortion bans, self-managed abortions are safer than ever (Salon)
• Who Gets to Be a Mother? (Yes Magazine)
• Why abortions rose after Roe was overturned (NBC News)
• Reproductive Justice, Black Maternal Health, and the Supreme Court (Repros Fight Back)
• Abortion Pill Revolution: CVS and Walgreens Now Selling Abortion Pills, While Telehealth Abortion Soars (Ms. Magazine)
• The Untold Stories of Birth Mothers (The Cut)
• Telehealth is as Safe as a Visit to the Clinic for Abortion Pills (UCSF News)
• Disparities in Pregnancy Experiences Found Among Black, Hispanic/Latinx and White Women with MS (National Multiple Sclerosis Society)
• Infant Deaths Rise After Dobbs (Abortion, Every Day Substack)
• How the Supreme Court’s Mifepristone Ruling Could Affect Abortion Access and Future Drug Approvals (Scientific American)
• What happens when we deny people abortions? | Diana Greene Foster (TED Health)
• I’d Be an Adoptee Teen Mom All Over Again (Ms. Magazine)
• Misleading state-funded ads are no remedy for the cruelty of Texas' abortion ban (Houston Chronicle)
• Despite state bans, abortions nationwide are up, driven by telehealth (NPR)
• The Abortion Pill: How Dangerous Is It Really? (Science VS)
• Supreme Court’s antiabortion conservatives could restrict abortion pills sent by mail, even in blue states (The Los Angeles Times)
• From Roe to Dobbs and Beyond: The last clinic in Mississippi (Alabama Reflector)
• Why do abortion "exceptions" rarely include mental health? (Salon)
• America’s Split Screen on Abortion (The New York Times)
• The Science Behind Third-Trimester Abortions (Science Friday)
• The Ethical Issues With America’s Private Adoption System (HealthNews)
• Black women on the academic tightrope: four scholars weigh in (Nature)

​Op-eds

In 2024, ANSIRH research and expertise was featured in 11 opinion pieces, including op-eds by other authors in Los Angeles Times and Romper. Of these, ANSIRH researchers penned 5 op-eds. Titles and links for these are listed by author below.

• Andrea Becker, PhD: The Case for Pulling Out (Slate), The New Autonomy of Abortion (Yes Magazine)
• Gretchen Sisson, PhD: Adoption, Abortion, Autonomy: On the Literature of Reproductive Justice (Literary Hub), The fraught relationship between abortion and adoption (The Washington Post)
• Leah Koenig, MSPH: Telehealth makes timely abortions possible for many, research shows (The Conversation)
• Ushma Upadhyay, PhD, MPH: Telehealth makes timely abortions possible for many, research shows (The Conversation)

Legal and Policy Activities

This year, ANSIRH experts continued to uplift reproductive health science in policy, legal, and cultural debates. ANSIRH researchers and research were featured in a number of court hearings, legal proceedings, and congressional hearings in 2024:

• In January, we worked with the UCLA Law Center on Reproductive Health, Law, and Policy (CRHLP) and the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP to develop an amicus brief on behalf of over 300 leading reproductive health researchers, including ANSIRH, urging the Supreme Court to maintain access to mifepristone in Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA.
• That same month, several ANSIRH researchers successfully led the charge in calling for journals to correct or retract faulty studies, one of which was cited by anti-abortion plaintiffs in AHM v. FDA.
• In March, Dr. Katrina Kimport’s research on third-trimester abortion informed Senator Dick Durbin’s closing remarks at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing about reproductive rights. 
• In May, Dr. Daniel Grossman served as an expert witness in a long-standing lawsuit challenging Ohio laws that ban telehealth abortions and keep certain medical professionals from prescribing mifepristone. 
• In June, Dr. Monica McLemore provided expert testimony in a lawsuit filed by the Center for Reproductive Rights against a Hawaiian law that is preventing pregnant people from receiving pregnancy and birth care from midwives.
• In October, a letter from congress to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services cited Dr. Sarah Roberts’ Doing Right at Birth training, which aims to reduces barriers to care for pregnant people with substance use disorder. 
• In December, Dr. Katrina Kimport served as an expert witness in a Kansas case that challenges a requirement for all abortion patients to report their reasons for getting an abortion. 
• The White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs cited Dr. Sarah Roberts’ work on mandatory warning signs related to pregnant people’s alcohol and cannabis use. This testimony underscored the need to incorporate health communication best practices into any new alcohol warning labels.

Other highlights from 2024

• Our researchers and staff received the following awards and recognitions in 2024:
  • This year, Dr. Daniel Grossman was honored as the Edward N. Brandt, Jr. Memorial Lecturer at the George Washington University and received the Croix de Guerriere Award at the RISE UP for Breast Cancer Conference.
  • Dr. Monica McLemore appeared on STAT News’ 2024 Status List and was named a McCausland Visiting Scholar by the University of South Carolina and a Fellow by the Academy of Diverse Leaders in Nursing.
  • Dr. Carol Camlin received an award for Outstanding Research Mentorship from the UCSF AIDS Research Institute.
• Our researchers were featured in 40+ radio shows, podcasts, and video interviews, including Dr. Diana Greene Foster discussing The Turnaway Study on TED, Dr. Ushma Upadhyay providing expertise on medication abortion on CBS News, Dr. Gretchen Sisson, highlighting her research on adoption for Rewire News Group; and Dr. Lauren Ralph speaking as an expert on self-managed abortion research for NPR.
• Dr. Gretchen Sisson published her book, Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood, which offers a close examination of motherhood and adoption in the United States. Sisson's book includes in-depth interviews with women who have relinquished infants for domestic adoption over the past 60 years, with a particular focus on women who have relinquished since Roe v. Wade.
• In August, ANSIRH’s Abortion Facilities Database research team published an updated summary report on abortion facility trends and services across the United States. In the latest report—which includes data since 2017, well before the overturning of Roe v. Wade—the total number of abortion-providing facilities in the United States fluctuated over time but grew in 2022 and 2023.
• ANSIRH released an updated report in September, Care Post-Roe: Documenting cases of poor-quality care since the Dobbs decision, which shows how health care providers have been unable to provide the standard of care in states with abortion bans since the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade in June 2022. The report documents a wide range of harm occurring among pregnant people in states with abortion bans, including increased morbidity and complications that could result in serious impairment and risk of death.
• In September, Steph Herold, MPH, appeared on a panel about abortion portrayals onscreen for The Writers Guild Foundation. That same month, New America’s Better Life Lab and the Abortion Onscreen research team released Fast Facts And Tips For Tv Writers: Writing Holistic Pregnancy and Abortion Stories, a tip sheet for TV/film writers about pregnancy and abortion storylines.
• This year, Dr. Monica McLemore appeared as an expert in two documentaries: Shift Nursing: Everybody’s Work and The Fight For Black Lives, to premiere at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival in 2025.
• Three staff members joined ANSIRH in 2024: Guillen Austria, Project Coordinator; Isabella Villareal, Administrative and Program Coordinator; and Dr. Miranda Hill, Assistant Professor. 

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