Our Work

Policy Briefs and Legislative Testimony

Our team collaborates with Rhode Island community partners to synthesize available evidence in order to make recommendations on just and patient-centered sexual health policies. We aim to develop briefs that are readable by a broad audience, succinct and timely. We prioritize briefs on policies that are currently being debated in Rhode Island.

We also participate in the legislative process in Rhode Island by providing written and verbal testimony on bills relating to sexual health policy. We include some of those statements here.

  • Policy Brief (September 21, 2022): Legal Protections for Abortion Providers in Rhode Island. PDF.
  • Policy Brief (February 17, 2022): Rhode Island’s Response to SB8. PDF.
  • Policy Brief (February 2, 2022): Health Consequences of Crisis Pregnancy Centers. PDF.
  • Policy Brief (August 31, 2021): The Importance of Comprehensive Sexual Health Education in Rhode Island Public Schools. PDF.
  • Policy Brief (August 31, 2021): Medicaid Coverage for Abortion Services in Rhode Island. PDF.
  • Policy Brief (May 26, 2021): Opportunities for Medication Abortion in the United States Post-Covid-19. PDF.
  • Testimony (April 26, 2021): In favor of funding abortion care in Medicaid and other state-sponsored health insurance programs. PDF.
  • Testimony (March 24, 2021): In favor of expanding Medicaid eligibility to 12 months postpartum, and in favor of insurance reimbursement for doula services. PDF.

Research from Our Team

In addition to policy briefs, which typically summarize and interpret data from multiple sources, members of our group also perform policy-relevant research of their own. Below, we include citations and links for a selection of recent publications from our group.

  • Brown, Benjamin P., Hebert, Luciana E., Gilliam, Melissa, Kaestner, Robert. “Distance to an Abortion Provider and Its Association with the Abortion Rate: A Multistate Longitudinal Analysis.” Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, vol. 52, no. 4, 2020. PubMed.
  • Brown, Benjamin P., Hebert, Luciana E., Gilliam, Melissa, Kaestner, Robert. “Association of Highly Restrictive State Abortion Policies With Abortion Rates, 2000-2014.” JAMA Network Open, vol. 3, no. 11, 2020, pp. e2024610. Full text.
  • Uwanaka, Ogechukwu, Qureshey, Emma, Wagner, Stephen M., Gupta, Megha, Theva, Meena, Brown, Benjamin. “Temporal Changes in Counseling for and Use of Emergency Contraception.” Obstetrics & Gynecology, vol. 140, no. 6, 2022, pp. 1049-1051. Full text.
  • Hersey, Alicia E, Potter-Rutledge, Jai-Me, Brown, Benjamin P. “Abortion policies at the bedside: incorporating an ethical framework in the analysis and development of abortion legislation.” Journal of Medical Ethics, 2022. Full text.
  • Theva, Meena, Weigel, Gabriela, Wagner, Stephen, Brown, Benjamin P. “The Association between Marital Status and Counseling on Emergency Contraception from 2011 to 2019.” American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 2023. Full text.
  • Weigel, Gabriela, Theva, Meena, Hardy, Erica, Wagner, Stephen, Brown, Benjamin P. “Sexual and Reproductive Health Care Visits as a Venue for PrEP Service Delivery among Women in the United States: Results from a Nationally-Representative Survey.” Sexually Transmitted Diseases, 2023. Full text.
  • Chhabria, Karisma, Raman, Vineet, Aghagoli, Ghazal, Brown, Benjamin P. “Abortion Policy Positions of Federal Legislators who Received Support from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, 2012-2022.” JAMA Network Open. 2023;6(4):e2310405. Full text.