ANSIRH
Research group at UCSF 📊🔍📝
We're committed to advancing reproductive well-being through science.
- Pregnant bodies don't follow legal timelines. Only about 1% of abortions are performed past 21 weeks of gestation, but they’re essential. People often seek out abortions later in pregnancy if they learn of a severe fetal or maternal health issue.
- Abortion bans are dangerous, and sometimes deadly. Since the Dobbs decision, dozens of women have come forward to say they were denied medically necessary abortions.
- Did you know that abortion is one of the safest outpatient procedures in the United States? It’s even safer than consuming Tylenol.
- Abortion access after the Dobbs decision has been propped up by donor outrage and heroic work—but that fragile system is already leaving people behind. We need to build a sustainable system to make abortion care accessible and equitable.
- Dozens of abortion restrictions are being challenged as unconstitutional under Missouri’s voter-approved reproductive rights amendment. In the months ahead, a judge will decide which restrictions survive— and which vanish.
- Access to abortion care allows people to create safer, happier lives. The Turnaway Study found that people who were denied abortion care were more likely to stay in contact with violent partners than those who received wanted abortions.
- Misoprostol is a safe, well-studied abortion medication that does more than end pregnancies. But after a recent rule change, anti-abortion pharmacists can now refuse to offer it and still get federal funds.
- Emily Waldorf’s water broke at 17 weeks — far too early for her child to survive. Despite a nonviable pregnancy and a growing risk of serious infection, Emily was denied both an abortion and antibiotics. Now, she’s suing to overturn Arkansas’ ban.
- Reminder: ICE targeting communities is a reproductive rights issue. Many patients — nervous about encountering immigration officials — are skipping virtually all of their pregnancy-related health care.
- Abortion bans rarely include exceptions that cover health concerns pregnant people with chronic conditions can face — or if they do, doctors aren’t using them. This puts patients at elevated risk of long-term complications and, in some cases, death.
- “Late-term abortion” is NOT a medical term. It is a political term designed to stigmatize abortion seekers.
- Abortion bans hurt everyone who might get pregnant, not just people who don’t want to be pregnant. That’s because abortions are an essential part of miscarriage care.
- The current admin, which already bars recipients of foreign aid from performing or even discussing abortion, will now ban recipients from promoting “diversity, equity and inclusion” and “gender ideology.” This is a cruel expansion of the global gag rule.
- One of the conclusions Carole Joffe & David S. Cohen reached in their research was that one of the biggest issues for abortion access in the post-Dobbs landscape is sustainability. In the past year, there have been reports of dwindling donations.
- Adoption is a complicated parenting decision. Abortion is a pregnancy decision. They’re not the same.
- Abortion bans are dangerous. A new study concludes that since Dobbs, forcing more women to continue pregnancies—including unsafe ones—and denying them abortion care has made pregnancy more deadly in the U.S.
- Having a wanted abortion isn’t linked to mental health issues, but being denied a wanted abortion is. The Turnaway Study, ANSIRH Director Daniel Grossman testified, found anxiety rates were higher among women who had just been denied abortions.
- Ciji Graham was at risk of heart failure and couldn’t get urgent treatment. She died waiting for an abortion. Doctors in states that ban abortion have repeatedly denied standard care to high-risk pregnant patients.
- Roe was never enough. Abortion bans & barriers have always made accessing care complex. Many patients need to raise money, schedule childcare, & take time off work. Some are even criminalized. We're working for a future where everyone can access essential health care.
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- Wellspring Health Access, which provides abortions as well as other services including family planning, general gynecology, and gender affirming care, opened its doors in spring 2023, almost a year after the Dobbs decision.
- Meet Kailey. She needed a medically necessary abortion, but an anti-abortion doctor in West Virginia denied her care. @brigidalliance.bsky.social helped her travel from West Virginia to Washington, D.C. to get the care she deserved.
- A new report from ANSIRH & @newamerica.org analyzes the last 10 years of TV & film. Although viewers are eager for more realistic abortion depictions, data shows they are often oversimplified, treated as one-offs, or unrepresentative of people’s lived experiences. www.newamerica.org/better-life-...
- Political agendas have no place in abortion clinics. Political agendas have no place at your OB-GYN’s office. Political agendas have no place in the emergency room.
- Last year, with our colleagues at @uclarepropolicy.bsky.social we sent a letter to the FDA signed by over 200 scientists. The short version? Medication abortion is safe. Time to drop the junk science and move on.
- Abortion bans cause immense harm, but how people get abortion care is evolving. Medication abortion through telehealth now accounts for 27% of all abortion care, and nearly all abortion care in states with bans. #WeCount
- The science is abundantly clear: Mifepristone is overwhelmingly safe and effective, whether provided in-clinic, via telehealth, or in a local pharmacy.
- medication abortion is safe medication abortion is safe medication abortion is safe
- Each of us deserves the freedom to decide if, when, and how to have a family. Our research shows that parents and children experience far better outcomes when people have wanted pregnancies on their own timelines.
- Mifepristone is one of the safest, most studied medications in the United States. No amount of misinformation from anti-abortion groups changes that.
- The internet is full of disinformation about contraception and abortion care. You deserve access to accurate data from dedicated reproductive health researchers around the country. That's why we're still here.
- Good news: A new study shows that over-the-counter birth control pills are reaching the very people they’re meant to help: people who are uninsured, in rural areas, or in states with abortion bans.
- Abortions are an essential part of miscarriage care.
- Disinformation thrives on shame and stigma. You can help combat this dangerous disinformation by amplifying evidence-based resources on abortion care and talking openly about abortion with people in your community.
- Bans on abortion put every pregnant patient at risk.
- There’s a harmful myth that most patients regret their decision to have an abortion. In fact, the opposite is true. The majority of Turnaway Study participants reported feeling relief even years after their abortion.
- Abortions are a normal, essential part of reproductive health care. Abortions are a normal, essential part of reproductive health care. Abortions are a normal, essential part of reproductive health care.
- It’s been another challenging year for reproductive health, and we need each other more than ever. We hope you can rest and spend some quality time with your loved ones so we can all come back stronger.
- Abortion storylines on TV in 2025 didn’t really reflect the reality of abortion access—like barriers to obtaining care, which most Americans face. "I think there still is a lot of stigma," says ANSIRH researcher Steph Herold.
- Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis diverted millions of dollars meant for low-income children to stop Floridians from protecting abortion rights at the ballot box. He also weaponized state agencies to run a disinformation campaign against Amendment 4.
- Bad news: Disinformation about the safety of abortion pills could be gaining ground. A recent poll found that 18% of Americans believe abortion pills are unsafe, up from 9% 2 years ago. The facts haven’t changed: abortion pills are safe and effective.
- Under current law, crisis pregnancy centers don’t need to tell their clients that they are not medical clinics. Nor must they disclose that they don’t provide abortions or birth control.
- Meta has removed or restricted dozens of accounts belonging to abortion access providers, queer groups, and reproductive health organisations in the past weeks. This is censorship. Plain and simple. www.theguardian.com/global-devel...
- Abortion bans and other barriers can make accessing abortion care complex. Many patients need to raise money, schedule childcare, and take time off work. Some are criminalized for seeking care. We deserve stories on screen that reflect real life.
- Abortions are a normal part of reproductive health care. Many people who have an abortion are already parents or decide to have children later in their lives.
- 27% of the abortions provided from January to June were provided via telehealth. Telehealth has become a lifeline for women seeking to end their pregnancies, especially those who live under abortion bans, explains ANSIRH researcher @ushma.bsky.social.
- Common reasons to get an abortion: 1. You want to. 2. You believe it is the best decision for you. 3. Your health depends upon it. 4. You’re focused on the children you already have. 5. You can’t afford to be a parent now.
- “The U.S. is becoming a tale of two countries in terms of abortion access and abortion policy,” says @ushma.bsky.social. But this will “never take away from the fact that women will continue to need abortion care, and continue to get abortion care.”
- Texas and Florida filed a lawsuit demanding that the FDA: ❌revoke the 2000 approval of mifepristone ❌ban telemedicine provision of abortion pills ❌revoke approval of two generic versions of mifepristone This isn’t about science. It’s about control.
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