Lauren Ralph, PhD, MPH

Dr. Lauren Ralph is an Epidemiologist whose research focuses on young people’s access to abortion and experiences making decisions around pregnancy. Her research has examined the impact of policies mandating parental involvement on young people’s experience accessing abortion, how being denied an abortion impacts maternal health outcomes and educational trajectories, and on levels of decision certainty and among people seeking abortion. She is currently engaged in research to better understand trends in prevalence of and experiences with self-managed abortion in the U.S., young people’s experiences with medication abortion, and on improved measurement of the causal impacts of unintended childbearing on young people’s educational trajectories. Across all areas of research, Dr. Ralph draws on a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods to answer research questions that can directly inform policy. Dr. Ralph holds a BS from the University of California, Santa Barbara, MPH and PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, and is a former Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health (BIRCWH) scholar.