Fellow Sarah Raifman Continues Critical Reproductive Health Work

Since her fellowship with mentor Joe Speidel at the UCSF Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health, Sarah Raifman has continued to work at UCSF with a group called Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSRH). There, she has been studying the effects of unintended pregnancy on women’s lives as part of Dr. Diana Greene Foster’s “Turnaway Study” project. Sarah and her team partnered with researchers in Bangladesh, Colombia, Nepal, South Africa and Tunisia to investigate why women are denied legal abortion services and the consequences of denial. They produced “In Their Own Words: Experiences of Women Denied Abortions,” a video that explores barriers such as social stigma and limited resources that prevent women from accessing abortion care. Sarah will travel to Bangladesh in March to present her findings as she finishes up work with the Turnaway Study.

Now more than ever, Sarah’s work resonates with people not just abroad, but right here in the US. Sarah has recently taken a new position as Project Director for Dr. Daniel Grossman, ANSIRH’s Director, where she will be conducting research studies to evaluate barriers to access to contraception and safe abortion in the US and testing new models of service provision to improve access to quality care for women.

The work that Sarah and her colleagues are doing is critical to the health and safety of women worldwide. For more information about ANSIRH’s work, visit www.ansirh.org.