Reproductive Health

Headshot of Sarah Hamill against burnt orange

Alumni Spotlight: Sarah Hamill (Master of Public Affairs)

March 3, 2023

LBJ alumna Sarah Hamill (MPAff '22) studied sex education reform at the LBJ School. Now, she is the founder of Birds N' Bees Box, a business focused on reproductive wellness and access to menstrual and sexual health products and services. She grew her community engagement skills while studying at the LBJ School - skills that she says are invaluable to her business. 

Experiences seeking, sourcing, and using abortion pills at home in the United States through an online telemedicine service

Article, Refereed Journal
Social Science & Medicine Qualitative Research in Health

A growing number of people in the United States seek to self-manage their abortions by self-sourcing abortion medications online. Prior research focuses on people's motivations for seeking self-management of abortion and experiences trying to obtain medications. However, little is known about the experiences of people in the U.S. who actually complete a self-managed abortion using medications they self-sourced online. We conducted anonymous in-depth interviews with 80 individuals who sought abortion medications through Aid Access, the only online telemedicine service that provides abortion medications in all 50 U.S. states. Through grounded theory analysis we identified five key themes: 1) participants viewed Aid Access as a "godsend"; 2) Fears of scams, shipping delays, and surveillance made ordering pills online a "nerve-racking" experience; 3) a "personal touch" calmed fears and fostered trust in Aid Access; 4) participants were worried about the "what ifs" of the self-managed abortion experience; and 5) overall, participants felt that online telemedicine met their important needs. Our findings demonstrate that online telemedicine provided by Aid Access not only provided a critical service, but also offered care that participants deemed legitimate and trustworthy.

Research Topic
Reproductive Health

Abortion pills by mail pose challenge for officials in red states

May 4, 2022
"The need for abortion will not go away," said Abigail Aiken, an associate professor of public affairs at the University of Texas at Austin who

Texas' restrictive abortion law previews a post-Roe America

May 3, 2022
When Politico published a draft opinion leaked from the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday, the nation confronted the reality that Roe v.

U.S. Abortion Care Providers' Perspectives on Self-Managed Abortion

Article, Refereed Journal
Qualitative Research in Health

State-level restrictions on abortion access may prompt greater numbers of people to self-manage their abortion. The few studies exploring perspectives of providers toward self-managed abortion are focused on physicians and advanced practice clinicians. Little is known about the wider spectrum of abortion care providers who encounter self-managed abortion in their clinic-based work. To gain a deeper understanding of this issue and inform future care delivery, we conducted in-depth interviews with 46 individuals working in a range of positions in 46 abortion clinics across 29 states. Our interpretative analysis resulted in themes shaped by beliefs about safety and autonomy, and a tension between the two: that self-managed abortion is too great a risk, that people are capable of self-managing an abortion, and that people have a right to a self-managed abortion. Our findings highlight the importance of increasing knowledge and clarifying values among all abortion care providers, including clinic staff.

Research Topic
Reproductive Health

Most women denied abortions by Texas law got them another way

March 6, 2022
In the months after Texas banned all but the earliest abortions in September, the number of legal abortions in the state fell by about half.

Demand for abortion pills in Texas surged after new law took effect, study finds

Feb. 25, 2022
Nearly six months since Texas adopted the most restrictive abortion law in the country, the number of procedures performed after six weeks of pregnancy has plummeted — but demand for self-managed a

Demand for abortion-inducing medication spiked after Texas' near-total ban on the procedure

Feb. 25, 2022
The demand for abortion-inducing medication spiked in the month after Texas significantly limited abortion access and has remained high since, according to new data from a researcher at the Univers

Association of Texas Senate Bill 8 With Requests for Self-managed Medication Abortion

Article, Refereed Journal
JAMA Network Open
JAMA Open Network

On September 1, 2021, Senate Bill (SB) 8 went into effect in Texas. The law bans abortion with almost no exceptions after approximately 6 weeks of pregnancy,1 raising the question of whether more people in Texas sought to self-manage their abortions outside the formal health care setting. Since 2018, nonprofit service Aid Access has been providing self-managed medication abortion through online telemedicine in the US.2 The service operates outside the formal health care setting and is accessed through an online consultation form. A donation of $110 is requested but reduced amounts are accepted. Mifepristone and misoprostol are mailed to the requestor for home use, and an online help desk team is available for further information and support.

Research Topic
Reproductive Health

Safety and effectiveness of self-managed medication abortion provided using online telemedicine in the United States: A population based study

Article, Refereed Journal
The Lancet Regional Health

As access to clinical abortion care becomes increasingly restricted in the United States, the need for self-managed abortions (i.e. abortions taking place outside of the formal healthcare setting) may increase. We examine the safety, effectiveness, and acceptability of self-managed medication abortion provided using online telemedicine.

We retrospectively examined records of the outcomes of abortions provided by the sole online telemedicine service providing self-managed medication abortion in the U.S. We calculated the prevalence of successful medication abortion (the proportion who ended their pregnancy without surgical intervention); the prevalence of serious adverse events (the proportions who received intravenous antibiotics and blood transfusion); and assessed whether any deaths were reported to the service. We also examined the proportions who were satisfied and felt self-management was the right choice.

Research Topic
Reproductive Health
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