Blog Series: SiX Repro’s ICYMI Research Roundup (May Edition)

SiX Repro’s ICYMI Research Roundup is a new regular update and short summary of recent sexual and reproductive health fact sheets, toolkits, and journal articles.  We bring you these latest and most relevant insights in the reproductive health, rights, and justice landscape to support state legislators in advancing evidence-based policymaking. These updates cover a wide range of reproductive health, rights, and justice topics, from abortion to contraception to maternal health to assisted reproductive technology and from the intersections of climate change or disability justice or gender affirming care and beyond. We value engagement from our state legislator community and invite you to join us as we explore these latest developments.

Blog Posts

• Women & Birthing People in Border Communities Face Escalating Attacks on Health Care Access Under the Trump Administration (National Partnership for Women & Families, May 2025): This blog focuses on how women and birthing people living in communities along the U.S.-Mexico border face persistent barriers to accessing the care they need, and how the Trump Administration and Republican policymakers’ agenda is further exacerbating these challenges. Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California are home to 8 million people living in the 44 counties along the U.S.-Mexico border. About half of the population in the border counties in New Mexico, California, and Arizona are Latine, with these communities having a higher likelihood of being home to migrant and undocumented groups – leaving far too many women unable to get the care they need.

Commentary

• What’s illegal? To learn, to practice, or both? Recommendations for the midwifery field to respond to the post-Dobbs abortion crisis (The European Journal of Contraception & Reproductive Health Care, May 2025): Since before the ruling of the Dobbs v. Jackson Supreme Court decision there has been a shortage of abortion providers that has contributed to the lack of abortion access across the U.S. In this commentary, the authors argue that midwives are uniquely positioned to provide abortion care due to their community-based training and practice, their professional scope of practice, and their reproductive health expertise. The authors use online state policy data on abortion restrictions and advanced practice clinician (APC) abortion scope of practice to describe the current U.S. landscape, and an online survey (n = 197) of U.S. midwives that collected responses on whether abortion training was a part of their midwifery curriculum and the type of training received.

Fact Sheets

• Medication Abortion Care (ANSIRH /UCSF Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health): There have been increased and ongoing attacks on mifepristone- one of the medications commonly used in medication abortion care- which has over two decades of rigorous scientific research proving its safety and effectiveness. This fact sheet provides a summary of research that shows medication abortion is safe, effective, and critical health care. For more, visit ANSIRH’s medication abortion webpage.

• The Role of the Viability Line in Pregnancy Criminalization (Pregnancy Justice, May 2025): The viability line into legal frameworks is an effective tool to subjugate, stigmatize, and punish women and pregnancy-able people.This report investigates the history and implications of enshrining the viability line into law and unpacks the ways in which that entrenchment cultivates the criminalization of pregnant women and pregnancy-able people.

• Just The Facts: “Restorative Reproductive Medicine” And “Ethical IVF” Are Misleading Terms That Threaten Access (The American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM), May 2025): ASRM released a fact sheet through its Center for Policy & Leadership clarifying how the terminology “restorative reproductive medicine” (RRM) and “ethical IVF” are used by some policymakers to mislead and limit access to assisted reproductive technologies. As advocates for evidence-based fertility care, they implore policymakers to uphold the integrity of our healthcare system by protecting access to proven treatments like IVF. ASRM highlights how  crucial it is to be vigilant against misleading terminology, such as “Restorative Reproductive Medicine” (RRM) and “Ethical IVF,” which can be used to promote ideologically driven restrictions that could limit patient care. The fact sheet includes information on the politicization of IVF and confirms that, despite new policies, laws, and suggested alternative options, IVF remains the most viable option for family building.

• IVF: A Critical Method for Building Families (Center for Reproductive Rights, May 2025): In vitro fertilization (IVF) is a widely used method of assisted reproductive technology in which an egg is combined with sperm in a lab to help create an embryo. This fact sheet aims to explain the IVF process and who needs it to build their family, the major barriers people face when trying to access it, and laws and policies that would best address these barriers.

• Medicaid Defense – Resources and Analysis (The National Health Law Program (NHeLP)): With a new administration and congress shaping the federal agenda in 2025, legislative proposals to overhaul Medicaid are regaining momentum.  In an updated series of fact sheets, NHeLP outlines the importance of Medicaid related to various populations groups and services Medicaid covers. In particular, the fact sheets focus on how funding caps would impact Medicaid. The data from the “Medicaid Fast Facts” document and information from the 14 fact sheets emphasize the vital nature Medicaid plays in ensuring the health of those enrolled as well as their communities and states. Here also are NHeLP Talking Points to Defend Medicaid

• SNAPSHOT: Birth equity requires abortion access (UW Collaborative for Reproductive Equity, May 2025): In this fact sheet, the authors of a commentary  on abortion access, and birth-related outcomes and inequities in Wisconsin summarize their main points and supporting evidence.  They outline three connections between Wisconsinites’ ability to obtain abortion care and their ability to experience safe and healthy pregnancies, births, and babies.

Research Briefs

• Birth Work Under Pressure: Supporting Black Midwives and Doulas Amid a Changing Landscape(Institute for Women’s Policy Research, May 2025): Since the earliest days of the United States, Black birth workers have played a critical role in maternal health, delivering a level of care and joy Black women rarely find in the “institutional” medical system; however, today only 7 percent of midwives are Black. Because of numerous barriers, women of color represent a small fraction of birth workers across the country. This brief highlights how the existing Black maternal health crisis and public policy crisis present many threats, but also the opportunity and necessity to invest in birth workers of color and community-based care models.

Research Reports

• Survey Of The Public’s Awareness Of “Fetal Personhood” And Messaging Against It (National Women’s Law Center and Pregnancy Justice):  National Women’s Law Center and Pregnancy Justice, in partnership with Lake Research Partners, conducted research to understand the public’s familiarity with and opposition to “fetal personhood” as well as the most effective messaging to address the harms of giving legal rights to embryos and fetuses. The research included both focus groups and a national survey of 1,300 likely 2026 voters using dial message testing. They have published their findings on both the NWLC and Pregnancy Justice websites, including a one pager with key survey findings, the most effective messaging, and a press release about the research.

Journal Articles

• Because Doulas Save Black Women’s Lives: Black Women’s Strategic Use of Doulas in Anticipation and Experiences of Obstetric Racism (Women’s Reproductive Health, May 2025 ): This qualitative study explores how Black women who gave birth during the COVID-19 pandemic strategically engaged doulas as a protective response to anticipated and experienced obstetric racism. Drawing on interviews with 10 Black women in Midwestern states, researchers found that participants were acutely aware of maternal mortality disparities and deliberately sought doulas—particularly Black doulas—as a survival strategy to mitigate risks during childbirth. The pandemic context revealed a critical insight: when hospital COVID restrictions prevented doulas from attending births (8 of 10 participants), many women experienced precisely the obstetric racism they had feared and tried to prevent.

• Mental Distress Among Females Following 2021 Abortion Restrictions in Texas (JAMA Network Open, May 2025):  In this cross-sectional study of 79 609 individuals, researchers found that implementation of severe abortion restrictions in 2021 was associated with an increase 6.8 percentage points frequent mental distress among females in Texas compared with males and an increase of 5.3 percentage points among females in Texas compared with females in states that had not yet passed severe restrictions.These findings suggest that Texas’s abortion restrictions were associated with increases in mental distress among females of reproductive age, and signal that state abortion policy may negatively affect mental health.

•  “They Don’t Respect Black Women”: Narrating a Young Black Woman’s Harrowing Birthing Experience (Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, May 2025):  Black women tend to feel underserved due to the lack of culturally competent care and support from healthcare systems. In this paper, researchers used a qualitative approach to describe the case study of a 30-year-old Black American woman who had a harrowing birthing experience. Six key themes were derived from her narrative that summarized her birthing experience: healthcare provider miscommunication, lack of control, trauma experience, interpersonal racism, systemic racism, and internalized racism. Researchers argue that there is a need for healthcare providers to be trained to provide culturally appropriate care to Black women. Employing such treatment may improve Black women’s reproductive health-seeking behavior as well as maternal and child health.

Podcasts

• Trust Black Women, Motherfuqqers With Kwajelyn Jackson & Grady Hendrix (Feminist Buzzkills! / Abortion Access Front, May 2025): Kwajelyn Jackson, Executive Director of the Feminist Center for Reproductive Liberation, joins Feminist Buzzkills! to discuss getting justice for Adriana Smith, the pregnant woman forced onto life support to carry out her pregnancy.

• Podcast Episode: Digital Autonomy for Bodily Autonomy (Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), May 2025):  We all leave digital trails as we navigate the internet and those trails usually are owned by the big corporations behind the platforms we use. But what if we valued our digital autonomy the way that we do our bodily autonomy? Kate Bertash, who directs the Digital Defense Fund, joins EFF’s Cindy Cohn and Jason Kelley on their podcast, How to Fix the Internet, to discuss how creativity and community can align to center people in the digital world, and make us freer both online and offline.

• Dr. Shelley Sella on Her New Book: Beyond Limits (the Population Institute, rePROs Fight Back, May 2025):  There are many reasons why someone may require a third-trimester abortion, including both fetal implications and maternal implications. Dr. Shelley Sella, the first woman to openly provide third-trimester abortion care in the U.S. and author of Beyond Limits: Stories of Third-Trimester Abortion Care, sits down with rePROs Fight Back to share her expertise, discuss the multitude of reasons why someone seeks a third-trimester abortion, and to touch on the personal stories shared in the book.

Webinars

• Launch Webinar for Unpunish Pregnancy: A Policy Evaluation Framework (Unpunish Pregnancy, May 2025): Unpunish Pregnancy–  a tool intended for lawmakers, legislative staff, and policy advocates who may be developing and/or evaluating policies across a wide range of issue areas– was developed by Patient Forward and the Center for Advancing Innovative Policy (CAIP), with significant leadership and contributions by Megan Donovan. Check out the Unpunish Pregnancy’s policy evaluation tool, which guides users through steps to analyze policies for threats to the bodily autonomy of pregnant people, parents, and just about anyone.

We welcome your feedback on content and format. Are you a state legislator and have questions? You can reach out to Melissa Madera, Senior Associate of Research and Education, Reproductive Rights, at melissa@stateinnovation.org.  If you’re a researcher or partner and want us to highlight your research, send materials to melissa@stateinnovation.org.