Abortion Services and Access in a post-Roe World: What Does this Mean for Los Angeles and for the United States?

The USC Institute on Inequalities in Global Health, in partnership with the USC Keck School of Medicine Center for Gender Equity in Medicine and Science, invites you to join us for “Abortion Services and Access in a post-Roe World: What Does this Mean for Los Angeles and for the United States?” on Tuesday, Oct. 4, noon–1 p.m. PDT.

This one-hour virtual panel brings together clinicians, civil servants, non-governmental organizations, and activists focusing on the provision of abortion services in Los Angeles and across the United States, including states with laws that severely restrict access such as Indiana and Texas. The discussion will consider the realities of abortion provision in a post-Roe world, including the options available to individuals who are seeking medical or in-clinic abortion services, with attention to the legality of abortion provision in different states and across state lines. Panelists will also consider the implications of these varied restrictions for clinicians and individuals who provide abortion services. With medical evidence as its starting point, this panel contributes to a broader understanding of the changing landscape of inequalities in health and health outcomes within and between cities and states in the United States brought about by the Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization.

Welcome remarks by Professor Sofia Gruskin, Director, Institute on Inequalities in Global Health, USC. The dialogue will be moderated by Dr. Sigita Cahoon, Assistant Professor and Co-Director of Labor & Delivery, Obstetrics & Gynecology at Keck School of Medicine, USC. Closing remarks by Dr. Parveen Parmar, Associate Professor and Chief of the Division of Global Emergency Medicine at Keck School of Medicine, USC.

Speakers:

Dr. Susie Baldwin, MD, MPH, FACPM, works as Medical Director for the Office of Women’s Health at the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (LAC DPH). Her team focuses on issues impacting women’s health equity including sexual and reproductive health, gender-based violence and human trafficking, and women’s health epidemiology. Dr Baldwin DPH on the County’s Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC) Steering Committee and the Gender Responsive Advisory Committee, which aims to improve conditions for women and gender expansive people in LAC jails and advance Alternatives to Incarceration. Dr. Baldwin previously served as medical director of California Family Health Council (Essential Access Health) and Planned Parenthood of Southern Arizona, as Associate Medical Director in the DPH Division of HIV and STD Programs, and as a provider at southern California Planned Parenthood affiliates. She has served on the Board of Physicians for Reproductive Health and on the Planned Parenthood Federation of America National Medical Committee.

Francine Coeytaux is the co-founder and co-director of Plan C Pills, and a public health specialist with more than 30 years of experience in developing and evaluating reproductive health programs. Best known for her work on new reproductive technologies, Coeytaux has focused on promoting comprehensive reproductive health services, including the development of emergency contraception, medical abortion, and microbicides. In addition to her international experience, Coeytaux helped found the Pacific Institute for Women’s Health and the Reproductive Health Technologies Project, and contributed to the creation of Planned Parenthood’s first adolescent outreach programs in San Francisco in the 1970s. From 1998-2001, she served on the State of California’s Advisory Committee on Human Cloning and in 2005 co-founded the ProChoice Alliance for Responsible Research. Coeytaux has a Master of Public Health from the University of California-Los Angeles and a bachelor’s degree from Stanford University.

Dr. Linda Prine is a Professor of Family and Community Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, in New York City. She was a co-founder of the Reproductive Health Access Project, the RHAP Fellowship, the Access list, the Reproductive Health MIG of the AAFP and the Miscarriage and Abortion Hotline (M+A Hotline). She serves on the leadership group of the M+A Hotline and works as a medication abortion provider in Southern New Mexico and for Aid Access, helping to get pills to Texas people. In all of these capacities, she has been a leader for full-spectrum reproductive health care: the integration of abortion, miscarriage and contraceptive care into family medicine teaching and services.

Dr. Tracey Wilkinson is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the Indiana University School of Medicine. She graduated from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in 2006 and completed her pediatric residency at Brown University/Hasbro Children's Hospital in Providence, RI. After residency, she pursued additional training through the general pediatrics fellowship at Boston Medical Center/Boston University. As a fellow, she obtained her Master of Public Health and began conducting research on availability and access to over-the-counter emergency contraception for adolescents. Her research was cited in the federal court case that ultimately removed age restrictions for emergency contraception nationally. After fellowship, she was faculty at Children's Hospital of Los Angeles/University of Southern California where she was a primary care pediatrician for 3 years. In 2015 she accepted a position at Indiana University to return to a research career. Her research focuses on examining and developing interventions to improve young people's access to reproductive health services from the perspective of a general pediatrician. Dr. Wilkinson wrote this op-ed in The New York Times defending her colleague for treating a 10-year-old rape victim.