Diana Greene Foster | |
---|---|
Born | 1971 (age 52–53) |
Alma mater | Princeton University University of California, Berkeley |
Scientific career | |
Institutions | University of California, San Francisco |
Thesis | Contraceptive use for birth spacing in sub-Saharan Africa (1998) |
Diana Greene Foster (born 1971) is an American demographer and professor of obstetrics, gynaecology and reproductive sciences at the University of California, San Francisco. She uses quantitative models to understand how reproductive health policies impact women's lives and to evaluate the effectiveness of family planning policies.
Foster was an undergraduate student at University of California, Berkeley. [1] After graduating from Berkeley with a BS in 1992, she moved to Princeton University for graduate studies, where she investigated contraceptive use in sub-Saharan Africa, receiving her MA and PhD from Princeton. [2] [3]
Foster is a demographer who uses quantitative models to understand the impact of family planning policies. [4] She led the Turnaway Study, a longitudinal investigation that evaluated the health of women who seek abortion. The Turnaway Study involved 1,000 women, some of whom were denied an abortion because they were beyond the gestational limit of their local clinic. She found that women who received abortions experienced less chronic pain and better health outcomes than those who were denied abortion. [5] She used credit studies to demonstrate that women who had been denied an abortion suffered financially for years. [5] She investigated the impact of California Family PACT (Planning, Access, Care, and Treatment), and showed that the long term provision of contraception reduced the amount of unintended pregnancy. [6] [7]
After the Supreme Court of the United States decided to overturn Roe v. Wade , Foster started investigating how people navigated the complex array of family planning provision in the United States. [5] [8] [9]
Coitus interruptus, also known as withdrawal, pulling out or the pull-out method, is an act of birth control during penetrative sexual intercourse, whereby the penis is withdrawn from a vagina prior to ejaculation so that the ejaculate (semen) may be directed away in an effort to avoid insemination.
Teenage pregnancy, also known as adolescent pregnancy, is pregnancy in a female under the age of 20.
Family planning is the consideration of the number of children a person wishes to have, including the choice to have no children, and the age at which they wish to have them. Things that may play a role on family planning decisions include marital situation, career or work considerations, financial situations. If sexually active, family planning may involve the use of contraception and other techniques to control the timing of reproduction.
Male contraceptives, also known as male birth control, are methods of preventing pregnancy by interrupting the function of sperm. The main forms of male contraception available today are condoms, vasectomy, and withdrawal, which together represented 20% of global contraceptive use in 2019. New forms of male contraception are in clinical and preclinical stages of research and development, but as of 2024, none have reached regulatory approval for widespread use.
Mary Steichen Calderone was an American physician, author, public speaker, and public health advocate for reproductive rights and sex education.
The Nurses' Health Study is a series of prospective studies that examine epidemiology and the long-term effects of nutrition, hormones, environment, and nurses' work-life on health and disease development. The studies have been among the largest investigations into risk factors for major chronic diseases ever conducted. The Nurses' Health Studies have led to many insights on health and well-being, including cancer prevention, cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes. They have included clinicians, epidemiologists, and statisticians at the Channing Laboratory, Harvard Medical School, Harvard School of Public Health, and several Harvard-affiliated hospitals, including Brigham and Women's Hospital, Dana–Farber Cancer Institute, Children's Hospital Boston, and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
Felicia H. Stewart (1943–2006) was a women's health physician and expert in the field of reproductive health.
Unintended pregnancies are pregnancies that are mistimed or unwanted at the time of conception, also known as unplanned pregnancies.
Reproductive coercion is a collection of behaviors that interfere with decision-making related to reproductive health. These behaviors are meant to maintain power and control related to reproductive health by a current, former, or hopeful intimate or romantic partner, but they can also be perpetrated by parents or in-laws. Coercive behaviors infringe on individuals' reproductive rights and reduce their reproductive autonomy.
Teenage pregnancy in the United States occurs mostly unintentionally and out of wedlock but has been declining almost continuously since the 1990s. In 2022, the teenage birth rate fell to 13.5 per 1,000 girls aged 15 to 19, the lowest on record. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), this decline is due to abstinence and the use of contraception.
Women's reproductive health in the United States refers to the set of physical, mental, and social issues related to the health of women in the United States. It includes the rights of women in the United States to adequate sexual health, available contraception methods, and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases. The prevalence of women's health issues in American culture is inspired by second-wave feminism in the United States. As a result of this movement, women of the United States began to question the largely male-dominated health care system and demanded a right to information on issues regarding their physiology and anatomy. The U.S. government has made significant strides to propose solutions, like creating the Women's Health Initiative through the Office of Research on Women's Health in 1991. However, many issues still exist related to the accessibility of reproductive healthcare as well as the stigma and controversy attached to sexual health, contraception, and sexually transmitted diseases.
Abortion in Uganda is illegal unless performed by a licensed medical doctor in a situation where the woman's life is deemed to be at risk.
The Texas Policy Evaluation Project, or TxPEP, is a collaborative group of university-based investigators who evaluate the impact of legislation in Texas related to women's reproductive health. It began in the fall of 2011 with the purpose of documenting and evaluating the impact of reproductive health legislation passed by the 82nd Texas Legislature. Those measures included large cuts to state family planning funding programs in the 2012–2013 budget as well as changes in the eligibility of organizations to participate in those programs, and Texas House Bill 15, a law requiring that women undergo a mandatory sonogram at least 24 hours before an abortion.
Nancy Elinor Adler was an American health psychologist. She was the Lisa and John Pritzker Professor of Medical Psychology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), and director of UCSF's Center for Health and Community Sciences. Adler was known for her research on health behaviors, health disparities, and social determinants of health.
Abortion in Kenya is prohibited with the exception of certain circumstances including danger to the life and health of the expectant mother, and rape. Unsafe abortions are a major cause of deaths and health complications for women in Kenya.
Marguerita Lightfoot is a counseling psychologist known for her research in the field of preventive medicine, especially in regard to HIV prevention and advocacy for homeless youth. She is Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine and the Chief of the Division of Prevention Science. She serves on the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Committee on Fostering Healthy Mental, Emotional, and Behavioral Development among Children and Youth.
Women’s healthcare in the United States has been constantly evolving to more fully address the needs of women's health throughout the U.S. During the twentieth century, many policies, practices, and treatments improved in order to better fit the needs of women. Men were often viewed as the appropriate professionals to attend to healthcare needs in the United States, including those of women. This made healthcare in the United States a sexist system. Women holding positions of power within our government as well as some men, would use their political stance to better address the needs of women. Policies were being revoked and new ones were being put in their place; policies that include women from minority groups that face racial prejudice not only from within the workforce but from healthcare institutions as well. In the 1950s into the 1960s, these healthcare institutions had scientists and doctors working on producing contraceptives, despite their controversial public opinions. Feminists within the U.S. were speaking out against the injustices, and inequality women were facing in the twentieth century to bring awareness to the needs of women and ensure that, as a country, the U.S. better address those needs within the twentieth century.
Michelle Asha Albert is an American physician who is the Walter A. Haas Lucie-Stern Endowed Chair in Cardiology and professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. Albert is director of the UCSF Center for the Study of Adversity and Cardiovascular Disease. She is president of the American Heart Association. She served as the president of the Association of Black Cardiologists in 2020–2022 and as president of the Association of University Cardiologists (2021–2022). Albert is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, the American Society of Clinical Investigators and the Association of American Physicians.
Claire Brindis, DrPH, is a Distinguished Emerita Professor of Pediatrics and Health Policy, Department of Pediatrics and Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Health Sciences and Emerita Director of the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Her research considers women's, adolescent and child health, as well as adolescent pregnancy prevention strategies. She was elected a member of the Institute of Medicine in 2010.
Emily Ai-hua Wang is an American physician who is a professor of medicine at the Yale School of Medicine. She is Director of the Yale SEICHE Center for Health and Justice. She was appointed a MacArthur Fellow in 2022.