Discussant: Géraldine Duthé(French Institute for Demographic Studies - INED), who presented comments originally prepared by Valentine Becquet, (French Institute for Demographic Studies - INED)
Video-recording:
Description: As a result of the United States Supreme Court’s June 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, the landscape of reproductive health care in the US is in the midst of seismic and rapid change. Abrupt changes in access to abortion in the US are without precedent in terms of the number of individuals who are affected, the number of states in which there remains substantial uncertainty around abortion policy changes in the near future, and the scale of potential effects on the lives of pregnant people. This presentation will discuss a new project underway to assess the impact of state abortion restrictions on the health of pregnant people, as well as the need for high quality estimates of abortion incidence both within and outside of the formal health care system as these restrictions are implemented. This includes the newly launched Monthly Abortion Provision Study and, drawing from lessons learned measuring abortion in restrictive settings globally, an adaptation of the Abortion Incidence Complications Method. This new work is aimed at establishing estimation approaches that encompass both facility-based and self-managed procedures and are designed for a context in which the legal status of abortion is hybridized and subject to rapid, ongoing changes, laying the foundation for a new surveillance infrastructure that will be needed for the foreseeable future in the US.
Elizabeth Sully is a Principal Research Scientist at the Guttmacher Institute, where her research focuses on abortion measurement, family planning, and assessing the cost and benefits of sexual and reproductive health services. Dr. Sully co-chairs the IUSSP Scientific Panel on Rethinking Global Family Planning Measurement, serves on the editorial committee for Studies in Family Planning and is a member of the FP2030 Performance Monitoring and Evidence Working Group. She earned her MA in public affairs and her PhD in public affairs and demography from the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and the Office of Population Research.
