United States – Global Reproductive Health at Duke

Reproductive Health Restrictions in the U.S. Can Affect Baby Health

October 29, 2020October 29, 2020 by Yazmia Snipes1 Comment

Recent research, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, has found that state reproductive rights policies have the ability to affect the health of babies born within the United States. The research concluded that women in states with less restrictive reproductive policies delivered “healthier babies” in terms of baby weight. It found that these women demonstrated a smaller risk of baby low birth weight than those of their counterparts in states with more reproductive health policy restrictions. The restrictiveness of states’ reproductive policies was evaluated depending on factors including: mandatory abortion waiting periods, eligibility for Medicaid family planning and more. States were divided and categorized into groups of having the most, least, or moderately restrictive policies. Amongst these categories, 20 states had the most restrictive policies, 16 states the least restrictive policies (including Washington D.C.) and 15 states had moderately restrictive reproductive policies. Following this comparison, a 7% lower low birth weight risk was observed on average for women in...

Judge Amy Coney Barrett Supreme Court Nomination

October 19, 2020October 20, 2020 by Zadaiah RoyeNo Comments

Following the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, there has been a lot of conversation surrounding who will take her place on the Supreme Court. President Trump’s nominee, Judge Amy Coney Barrett, has been under a lot of scrutiny surrounding her confirmation hearing. Judge Amy Coney Barrett currently serves on the U.S Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Prior to this position, she clerked for judges such as Judge Laurence H. Silberman and Justice Antonin Scalia. Judge Barrett has typically held conservative stances on topics such as immigration, gun control, LGBTQ+ rights, and reproductive rights. Her rulings on the Court of Appeals have even further shown these stances. Judge Barrett has argued that states have the right to ban abortion if they do not like the reasoning. This argument was built despite the fact that her state, Indiana, had not been reviewing the issue. Additionally, the precedent set in Roe v. Wade made it clear that the government does not have...

The Trump Administration’s Domestic Gag Rule

July 15, 2019July 18, 2019 by Molly PaleyNo Comments

Since running for President and into his presidency, Donald Trump and his Administration have sought to undermine women’s access to reproductive health care. Last year, the Trump Administration proposed changes to Title X—which is federal grant program that provides funding for comprehensive family planning services. Known as the “domestic gag rule,” the proposed changes “gag” or bar healthcare providers from referring their patients to abortion providers. Moreover, the rule would drastically alter access to reproductive health care, including birth control and other family planning services, for millions of women who depend on Title X funded clinics. When the Administration released the final version of the rule changes, reproductive health organizations such as Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association immediately challenged the rule. Despite a preliminary injunction that prevented the rule’s implementation, on July 3, a panel of three judges lifted the injunction. Devastatingly, last week by 7-4...

The Irony of the Mexico City Policy

July 3, 2019July 3, 2019 by Molly PaleyNo Comments

In his first days as President of the United States, Donald Trump reinstated the Mexico City Policy. Also known as the Global Gag Rule, the policy “gags” international NGOs receiving U.S. aid by not allowing them to “perform or actively promote abortion as a method of family planning.” First enacted by President Ronald Reagan, U.S. funding for critical reproductive healthcare abroad has been a partisan issue ever since with every Republican President instating the policy and every Democratic repealing it. President Trump’s reinstatement of the policy greatly expanded its parameters and includes a wide range of global health programs such as HIV funding through PEPFAR (President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief). The expansion of the policy diminished the provision of services by international NGOS who weren’t previously affected by the policy and who feared losing critical funding from the U.S. Last week, a study published in the Lancet found that when the Mexico City Policy is instated, rates of abortion...

New State Abortion Bans

June 10, 2019June 10, 2019 by Molly PaleyNo Comments

Photo Credits: John Benson After the recent passage of restrictive abortion legislation in Georgia and Alabama, abortion continues to be under attack across the country. The abortion bans signal continued attempts by states to undermine a woman’s right to access an abortion. Last week, Louisiana Democratic governor, John Bel Edwards, signed into law a restrictive “heartbeat” bill. The law, like other recent abortion legislation, would prohibit an abortion after an ultrasound detects electric pulsing of what will become a fetus’ heart—which can occur before most women know they are pregnant. Moreover, the Louisiana law does not include exceptions for rape or incest. Although the law will not go into effect immediately, it is likely to be stalled in the courts. In Missouri, only one abortion clinic remains open. If it closes, it would be the first time a state does not have an abortion clinic since 1974—when the Supreme Court ruled on Roe v. Wade. A judge is expected to a settle...

Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women in Canada and United States

June 10, 2019 by Molly PaleyNo Comments

In 2014, Tina Fontaine, a member of the Sagkeeng First Nation in Canada was murdered. Her death garnered national attention as it highlighted the alarmingly high rate of violence against indigenous women in Canada. Such violence prompted the creation of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. After nearly three years of investigation, a report was published earlier this week that calls the treatment of indigenous women “a genocide.” The report included policy recommendations that seek to mitigate the violence and address its causes. As in Canada, native women in the United States disproportionately experience violence. A report conducted by the Department of Justice (DOJ) found that some counties in the U.S. have murder rates against indigenous women that are more than ten times the national average. Moreover, limited data and reporting on crimes against indigenous women and girls in the United States make it more difficult to understand the extent of the violence. According to a...

Alabama and Georgia Pass Restrictive Abortion Laws

May 16, 2019 by Molly PaleyNo Comments

On Wednesday, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey signed into law the most restrictive anti-abortion legislation in the country. The bill not only bans abortion at nearly every stage of pregnancy, it also criminalizes the procedure for doctors who perform abortions. Although women who receive an abortion will not be prosecuted, the new law targets doctors who could face up to 99 years in prison for performing an abortion. The bill includes protections when a mother’s life is endangered, but it does not include exceptions for rape or incest. While the courts have continued to reaffirm a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion since the decision in Roe v. Wade, the Alabama law is most recent attempt to challenge the 1973 precedent. Since the beginning of 2019, nearly 300 restrictive abortion laws have been introduced in state legislatures across the country. Earlier this month, Georgia governor Brian Kemp signed into law a fetal heartbeat bill that prohibits abortion after a doctor can detect...

Update on Health Efforts in Nigeria

February 6, 2019February 6, 2019 by Carly JonesNo Comments

Reproductive health supplies are dwindling in Nigeria, with family-planning funds provided by the United States having been revoked two years ago in accordance with Trump’s gag-rule. This revocation of funds was catalyzed by the Trump administration’s accusations that the United Nations Population Fund was facilitating coercive abortions and sterilization- accusations which turned out to be entirely unfounded. Regardless, Nigeria, a country with one of the world’s highest rates of maternal mortality, subsequently lost more than half of its family planning funds within one year, bringing about devastating impacts upon contraceptive accessibility and efforts to address gender-based violence. FP2020 is a family planning initiative launched in 2012 with the goals of improving accessibility to family planning services and commodities, slowing the rate of population growth, and empowering the agency of women within decisions having to do with their bodies and health. However, without U.S. Funding, FP2020 has seen Nigerian health services deteriorate. And yet, despite the gag rule, studies have shown...

Judges Block Trump Birth Control Policy

January 15, 2019 by Jessica WilliamsNo Comments

This Monday, Philadelphia District Judge Wendy Beetlestone decided to block a Trump administration rule that would allow employers to decline contraceptive healthcare coverage on religious grounds. While the Women's Health Amendment of the Affordable Care Act originally required employer-provided healthcare plans to include free or affordable birth control, the current administration amended the ACA to expand religious-based exemptions. The Trump administration's rules would have impacted tens of hundreds of childbearing-age women, increasing pressure on state-funded healthcare services. This nationwide injunction followed a similar decision earlier in the day, in which a California judge blocked the new rules for 13 states and the District of Columbia. After this decision, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said in a statement that “the law couldn’t be clearer – employers have no business interfering in women’s healthcare decisions. Today’s court ruling stops another attempt by the Trump Administration to trample on women’s access to basic reproductive care. It’s 2019, yet the Trump Administration is still trying to roll...

California Right to Access Act Revisited

January 10, 2019January 10, 2019 by Megan HuchkoNo Comments

Story by Karina Moreno Bueno, T'21 There was a recent attempt in September to require California to provide medical abortion in public colleges and universities. Medical abortion is otherwise known as the abortion pill. Unfortunately, this bill was not signed by by Governor Jerry Brown. California’s governor announced that he vetoed the bill because “the services required by this bill are widely available off-campus” within five to seven miles off California state university campuses, meaning that he found it an unnecessary government expenditure. The problem with going off-campus to seek these services is that half of students in the California state university school-system are low-income students, meaning that they are likely to struggle to pay for abortions off-campus. Furthermore, the majority of these students do not have a car, making transportation very difficult and not accessible to everyone. Reproductive health rights activists have not given up, as there has been an introduction of updated version of the bill into the state’s legislature...

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