Abortion and a women’s right to choose. Harmful legal decisions in Texas have brought a women’s right to choose front and center. What will the Supreme Court decide? Can we save Roe vs Wade?
Dr. Diana Greene Foster, PhD headed the Turnaway Study, a ten year study. She is the author of Turnaway Study: Ten Years, a Thousand Women, and the Consequences of Having – or Being Denied – an Abortion.
I had the opportunity to speak with Dr. Greene Foster last year. Our conversation is even more relevant today.
“The Turnaway Study demonstrates the power of narrative in illuminating why women seek abortions. We have a responsibility to safeguard reproductive rights for women everywhere–and for future generations. In this book, statistics and stories meet to reveal the consequences of denying women this service, as well as what happens when they receive it. It is an essential read.” – Isabel Allende, author of A Long Petal of the Sea.
Dr. Foster led a ten-year study of a thousand women, comparing those who received abortions shortly before reaching a state’s gestational limit with those who did not. Those who didn’t had not learned early enough that they were pregnant, couldn’t travel to a provider, or couldn’t afford the escalating costs of a later abortion. Drawing on her research and on first-person narratives, the book illustrates how women denied abortions were more likely to struggle financially, suffer domestic violence, and experience short-term anxiety, while women who obtained abortions tended to experience better physical and mental health.
In 2017, Dr. Foster received the Robert A. Hatcher Family Planning Mentor Award by the Society of Family Planning. Dr. Foster received her undergraduate degree from UC Berkeley, her MA and PhD in Demography and Public Policy from Princeton University.