Katrina Kimport

Examines whether and how the financial, logistical, and emotional costs associated with forced abortion travel can be reduced, identifying structural and interpersonal actions that can improve patient experiences, even in the absence of policy change.

Punctures the myth that American women have full autonomy over their reproductive choices, exposing the structural, cultural, and experiential factors that can make choosing abortion impossible–especially for those who experience racism and class discrimination. Gives voice to women whose experiences are often overlooked in debates on abortion, illustrating how real reproductive choice is denied, for whom, and at what cost.

Examines the association of women receiving or being denied a wanted abortion with their children’s health and well-being.

Examines the mental and emotional aspects of contraception—and how clinicians counsel women in ways that normalize and entrench the feminization of responsibility for all aspects of preventing pregnancy.

Examines the many and overlapping reasons same-sex couples choose to marry, including as protest, for rights and social recognition, and for love. Argues that, depending on the reasons for marriage, same-sex marriage can both contest and entrench sexual identity-based inequality.

Shows that women who view their preabortion ultrasound image experience a range of emotional responses to viewing, including no emotional response, negative responses, and positive responses – in contrast to popular assumptions that viewing is always traumatizing. Gestational age does not predict a negative emotional response to viewing.

Demonstrates that voluntary viewing of the preabortion ultrasound image does not change women’s minds about choosing abortion.

Shows that women who experience post-abortion emotional difficulty (sometimes called “regret”) do so because of the complicated contexts of their lives – including romantic relationship loss, lack of social support, and attachment to the pregnancy – rather than because of the physical abortion procedure.