Traveling to abortion care, post-Dobbs: 2 UIC Professors Receive $200K+ Interdisciplinary Funding Opportunity
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Since the 2022 ruling (Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization) stating that there is no constitutional right to an abortion and overruling previous court decisions in Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, many not-for-profit organizations have come together to aid pregnant people in the 21 states that have adopted abortion bans or policy restrictions.
Associate Dean of Experiential Education at the UIC School of Law Professor Kim Ricardo and Interim Sociology Department Head for the UIC College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Professor Claire Laurier Decoteau, PhD have received $248,091 in grant money to fund their interdisciplinary project, “Abortion on the move: Navigating the fractured reproductive healthcare landscape.”
The grant, funded by the Society of Family Planning, was created to investigate the barriers that pregnant people face in seeking abortion care, focusing on the experiences of low-income women of color, and particularly those who have to travel across state lines to receive care.
The 18-month research project will feature comprehensive efforts with a community partner, a local abortion fund, who will assist with gathering qualitative data to assess the climate and pathways to abortion and identify roadblocks erected by state laws since the Dobbs decision. Data will be collected from a series of interviews conducted with abortion providers, those who took advantage of funds available to travel to abortion-legal states, and from those who have decided to self-manage their abortion. Data will also include insights gathered from networks of midwives, abortion partners, and any personal testimonies gathered from social media.
Using the results from the data gathered, Ricardo and Decoteau will see what opportunities exist to create new policies and proposals to combat barriers to abortion care.
Ricardo and Decoteau, who became familiar with each other’s work and research as members of the UIC Public Voices Fellowship, understand how law influences society and culture, and their cross-collaborative efforts will shed light into how health and the law intersect.
Grant work is set to begin Summer 2024.