IBS Speaker Series: Amanda Stevenson

Join in person or via Zoom, email ibs-contact@colorado.edu for the password.
*Light lunch served at 11:45, please RSVP.

Title: The past, present, and future of abortion and contraception in the US: Insights from and challenges for demography

Abstract: In June 2022, the United States Supreme Court ended 50 years of legal protections for right to abortion care in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision. But opponents of reproductive liberty had been eroding legal protections for abortion since shortly after they were established in the 1973 decision Roe v. Wade. A similar process is now underway for contraception. This talk will provide an outline of abortion and contraception in the United States from a demographic perspective. It will focus on: 1) the status of abortion and contraception in the United States and how this status may change in the near future; 2) demography’s contributions to our knowledge about abortion and contraception in the United States, including data, major studies, and current initiatives; and 3) describe emerging challenges in abortion and contraception research and how demographers can help address them.

Bio: Amanda Jean Stevenson is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Colorado Boulder. As a sociologist trained in demographic and computer science methods, she studies the impacts of and responses to abortion and contraception policy. She leads a team using massive administrative data at the Census Bureau to evaluate the life course consequences of changes in access to contraception. She also evaluates the impacts of a variety of state-level reproductive health policies, including the maternal mortality consequences of banning legal induced abortion.