Reproductive Health Care Post-Roe (2025-2026)
Background
In June of 2022, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, ending the federal right to an abortion. This decision has led to early pregnancy or total abortion bans that have now spread to 29 states.
Unconnected to the science of reproduction or physicians’ practice of evidence-based medicine, the bans have caused upheaval to millions of people of reproductive age. In 2023 alone, 170,000 patients traveled to another state for abortion care, and, in the longer term, 65% of women living in ban-states will experience “reproductive care deserts.”
State borders now determine whether reproductive health care is “essential” or “criminal.” The end result will restrict reproductive autonomy over at least the next two generations, even if today’s bans are overturned. Standing by as state legislators and federal judges take human rights away in real time has a profound impact on the mental health of providers across the states with bans and restrictions, and creates a tremendous moral injury when policymakers suddenly remove the ability to provide a necessary component of healthcare.
Duke University Hospital’s unique geography as the furthest southern state now permitting abortion care, along with its institutional structure (private rather than public), make it an ideal place from which to bear witness to reproductive healthcare access in the post-Roe landscape. To understand and analyze the impact of Roe’s fall, it is essential to document the medical, ethical and political conditions of the moment as seen from those providing reproductive care.
Project Description
Building upon the work of previous teams, this project team will use ethnographic methods, including gathering and organizing archival research, documenting media coverage, and conducting oral history interviews, to expand the audio and documentary archive launched in 2024 chronicling the work of the Duke Family Planning team and their colleagues across the country, with a particular focus on the Southeast.
Team members will continue to add short audio narratives of interviews, putting them in the context of historical and contemporary reproductive healthcare in this geographically jagged care landscape. This work builds on the evolving oral history protocols team members to conducted over 60 interviews so far, 90% of which are with physicians. In addition to doctors, the 2025-2026 team will also prioritize nurses/midwives, physician assistants, nurse navigators, clinic managers and other key staff involved in care provision post-Roe.
Anticipated Outputs
Expansion of Reproductive Care Provider Archive; continuation of social media channels; sustainable data storage and updating protocols; expansion of podcast collaborations; podcast contextualizing excerpts from oral history archive; sharing archive at professional conferences; public listening party
Student Opportunities
Ideally, this project team will include 2 graduate students and 10 undergraduate students interested in global health, computer science, reproductive rights, medical humanities, anthropology, the arts, documentary studies and/or journalism. Students from all fields who are interested in reproductive justice are encouraged to apply.
Undergraduates will have the opportunity to participate as members of the data team, responsible for arranging, conducting and sharing quantitative research, or the interview team, responsible for arranging, conducting, transcribing and clipping interviews of medical providers. All team members will acquire deep knowledge of reproductive healthcare policy’s impact and learn how to articulate the multiple layers of ethical decisions involved in sharing medical providers’ stories.
Students will also practice methods of visual, audio and social media alongside written documentation for keeping record of medical providers’ experiences. This will include archiving multiple legal, political, ethical and intersectional aspects of at least three providers’ stories and analyzing this data.
Graduate students will have the opportunity to lead subteams, use their analytical and research skills, and build influencer networks to help them disseminate their own scholarship in the future.
Timing
Fall 2025 – Spring 2026
- Fall 2025: Learn medical content and methodologies; train for and conduct interviews with healthcare providers; transcribe, index and archive interview data; refine the communication plan; seek IRB approval for the second qualitative study; record and edit two podcast episodes; update social media and web platforms to disseminate findings effectively
- Spring 2026: Continue conducting, transcribing and archiving interviews; write, edit and launch all six podcast episodes; complete the second qualitative study; update communication platforms; distribute findings to key audiences, ensuring accessibility and engagement
Crediting
Academic credit available for fall and spring semesters
See earlier related team, Reproductive Healthcare Post-Roe (2024-2025).