In June 2022, the United States (U.S.) Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade (1973) with the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case, thereby eliminating the constitutional right to abortion. As a result, authority now resides with individual states to regulate abortion access. Currently, abortion is banned in several states, severely restricted in some, and protected in others. While the impact of the Dobbs decision has yet to be fully realized, it has severe implications for sexual and reproductive health, rights and justice, population health, and health equity nationally and globally. The impact of the ruling is expected to exacerbate existing health disparities and produce new inequities in sexual, reproductive, and maternal health outcomes, disproportionately affecting pregnant people who are already minoritized or disenfranchised (e.g., people of color, people with low incomes, young people, people living in rural areas, immigrants, people who identify as LGBTQIA+, justice-involved, and unhoused communities) living in states where abortion access has been banned or restricted. This Research Topic aims to elucidate actual short-term, potential long-term, global, and domestic health inequities produced by the Dobbs decision, and to describe efforts and interventions designed and undertaken to reduce health impacts and inequities in advance or directly after the decision. Recent data from countries that have restricted access to abortion over the past 30 years reveal that such laws actually increase rates of unsafe abortion, which in many instances leads to pregnant people becoming severely ill or dying from preventable causes. In an era of maternal health crisis for people of color in the U.S. and other disadvantaged populations around the world, eliminating the constitutional right to abortion in the U.S. will have a reactionary impact on underserved and minoritized groups everywhere. The implications will be felt globally as the Dobbs decision has triggered the development of restrictive policies increasing inequalities by social and demographic characteristics. Many groups disproportionately experience social disadvantage, yielding socially distributed negative exposures including severely limited access to care. The goal of the article collection is to identify threats to, results of, and protections against inequities in reproductive health, rights, and justice. Devoting a Special Issue to this topic brings vital and robust discourse about reproductive justice and health inequity to the forefront of public health.

At a UN General Assembly Special Session in 1999, governments recognised unsafe abortion as a major public health concern, and pledged their commitment to reduce the need for abortion through expanded and improved family planning services, as well as ensure abortion services should be safe and accessible. This technical and policy guidance provides a comprehensive overview of the many actions that can be taken in health systems to ensure that women have access to good quality abortion services as allowed by law.

"Now with a new afterword by the author"--Back cover.

During the early 1990s, global health experts developed a new model of emergency obstetric care: post-abortion care or PAC. In developing countries with restrictive abortion laws and where NGOs relied on US family planning aid, PAC offered an apolitical approach to addressing the consequences of unsafe abortion. In Dying to Count, Siri Suh traces how national and global population politics collide in Senegal as health workers, health officials, and NGO workers strive to demonstrate PAC’s effectiveness in the absence of rigorous statistical evidence that the intervention reduces maternal mortality. Suh argues that pragmatically assembled PAC data convey commitments to maternal mortality reduction goals while obscuring the frequency of unsafe abortion and the inadequate care women with complications are likely to receive if they manage to reach a hospital. At a moment when African women face the highest risk worldwide of death from complications related to pregnancy, birth, or abortion, Suh’s ethnography of PAC in Senegal makes a critical contribution to studies of global health, population and development, African studies, and reproductive justice.

Experts estimate that nearly 60 percent of all U.S. pregnancies--and 81 percent of pregnancies among adolescents--are unintended. Yet the topic of preventing these unintended pregnancies has long been treated gingerly because of personal sensitivities and public controversies, especially the angry debate over abortion. Additionally, child welfare advocates long have overlooked the connection between pregnancy planning and the improved well-being of families and communities that results when children are wanted. Now, current issues--health care and welfare reform, and the new international focus on population--are drawing attention to the consequences of unintended pregnancy. In this climate The Best Intentions offers a timely exploration of family planning issues from a distinguished panel of experts. This committee sheds much-needed light on the questions and controversies surrounding unintended pregnancy. The book offers specific recommendations to put the United States on par with other developed nations in terms of contraceptive attitudes and policies, and it considers the effectiveness of over 20 pregnancy prevention programs. The Best Intentions explores problematic definitions--"unintended" versus "unwanted" versus "mistimed"--and presents data on pregnancy rates and trends. The book also summarizes the health and social consequences of unintended pregnancies, for both men and women, and for the children they bear. Why does unintended pregnancy occur? In discussions of "reasons behind the rates," the book examines Americans' ambivalence about sexuality and the many other social, cultural, religious, and economic factors that affect our approach to contraception. The committee explores the complicated web of peer pressure, life aspirations, and notions of romance that shape an individual's decisions about sex, contraception, and pregnancy. And the book looks at such practical issues as the attitudes of doctors toward birth control and the place of contraception in both health insurance and "managed care." The Best Intentions offers frank discussion, synthesis of data, and policy recommendations on one of today's most sensitive social topics. This book will be important to policymakers, health and social service personnel, foundation executives, opinion leaders, researchers, and concerned individuals. May

Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Introduction -- 1. A Reproductive Justice History -- 2. Reproductive Justice in the Twenty-First Century -- 3. Managing Fertility -- 4. Reproductive Justice and the Right to Parent -- Epilogue: Reproductive Justice on the Ground -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- Index

Despite recent declines in infant mortality, the rates of low birthweight deliveries in the United States continue to be high. Part I of this volume defines the significance of the problems, presents current data on risk factors and etiology, and reviews recent state and national trends in the incidence of low birthweight among various groups. Part II describes the preventive approaches found most desirable and considers their costs. Research needs are discussed throughout the volume.