Tag: women’s health

Lucy Brown Lucy Brown (2 Posts)

Contributing Writer

Indiana University School of Medicine

Lucy Brown is a second-year medical student at Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis, Indiana class of 2023. In 2018, she graduated from IU Bloomington with a Bachelor of Science in biology. She enjoys running and podcasts. After graduating medical school, Lucy would like to pursue a career in Infectious Disease, OB/GYN, or Global Health.




Forced Hysterectomies in ICE Detention Centers: A Continuation of Our Country’s Sordid History of Reproduction Control

Published by Lucy Brown

This unrest reached a high point in September, when nurse Dawn Wooten filed a formal complaint against Dr. Mahendra Amin, a Georgia physician working at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center, who she claims performed mass hysterectomies on detained immigrant women without consent. While the country reacted in shock, the reality is that coerced sterilization against communities of color is not new. The United States has a shameful history of exploiting Black and brown women’s bodies as part of a larger objective for population control rooted in white supremacy — and the medical field is partly to blame.

Reproductive Rights Reflection

Published by Karen Chong

She doesn’t know that, just on the other side of the door, there is a beautiful room filled with the smell of eucalyptus, sounds of water trickling and dimmed lighting dedicated to putting her mind at rest. That next to that is a room full of grateful and relieved women looking forward to the rest of their lives.

The 17: What Happens When Abortion is Criminalized Without Exception?

Published by Eden Almasude

In El Salvador, 17 women imprisoned after experiencing miscarriages or stillbirths began a campaign against reproductive injustice. “The 17” were sentenced for up to 40 years in prison for miscarriages or complications during delivery, after being convicted of attempted or aggravated homicide. This was the outcome of a total ban on abortion: young, often unmarried, women of lower socioeconomic status are suspected of inducing illegal abortion when experiencing emergent obstetric complications. Stigma and misogyny play into the result, in which a woman’s health during pregnancy is viewed with distrust.

Legislative Scope of Practice: Patients Lose When We Let Politicians Play Doctor

Published by Rachel Solnick

Author’s note: This article was originally published on TexasMedicine. In Texas, as in all other states, a person who is unable to make his or her own medical decisions has the right to an advance directive (AD) for restricting medical treatment; that is, unless that person is pregnant. If a woman is pregnant in Texas, she loses her right to an AD; that is true regardless of the stage of her pregnancy and without regard for …

Teen Mom

Published by Valentina Bonev

It’s weird seeing a mother waiting to deliver her baby while watching Nickelodeon on TV. That’s because she’s 17 years old and is having her second child. I’ve met several women who were 30 years old and having their sixth child after ten pregnancies. I think this mother is on that track. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which is an excellent resource during your medical career, states that about four percent of …

Getting a GED: A Story of Abortion and Adolescence

Published by Katie Taylor

One eye is open as they velcro her legs into the stirrups. I ask the anesthesiologist why that is. He says he thinks it’s because she’s exophthalmic, the medical way of saying she has bulging eyes. Her hips writhe as they insert the long, slender, metal dilators to force open her cervix. They are reflex movements, they say, she won’t remember it, she isn’t in pain. She lifts her pelvis up and off the table …

What We Mean When We Say “Not Even” in Abortion Legislation

Published by Larissa Mattei

According to the Guttmacher Institute, there have been more anti-choice bills passed in the past two years than in the past decade. Ninety-three up from to 22, to be exact. The majority of these restrictions target abortion providers in an effort to close clinics and limit public access. Specifically, these are known as “TRAP” laws: “Targeted Restrictions on Abortion Providers.” Others limit insurance coverage while the ones that often garner the loudest public outcry seek …

Larissa Mattei Larissa Mattei (1 Posts)

Contributing Writer Emeritus

Tufts University School of Medicine