Society of Family Planning Research
Deadline: February 14, 2019
Applicants should focus their proposals around the following question: what would it take to increase access to medication abortion in the US, specifically for populations not currently benefiting from its availability? Proposed research must be positioned to generate empirical evidence with a clear and strategic path to changes in clinical practice, public policy, health services delivery, or cultural understandings. Research that stimulates the disruptive potential of medication abortion will be prioritized.
Proposals addressing the following topics are of particular interest, although reviewers will evaluate proposals addressing other topics.
Individual-level factors, such as:
- Nuanced documentation of knowledge, understanding, attitudes, beliefs, behaviors, pathways, and/or access to information and support related to medication abortion among specifically defined (eg, race, ethnicity, religion, social class, gender, age, health, geography) populations
- Interventions designed to influence knowledge, understanding, attitudes, beliefs, behaviors, pathways, and/or access to information and support related to medication abortion among specifically defined populations
- Identifying how to best inform and support people in various settings in using medicines safely and effectively
- The self-determination of gestational age or completion of medication abortion
- Understanding and meaning making of medication abortion within and outside the formal health care system
- Preference for aspiration/surgical abortion compared to medication abortion or among medication abortion options (eg, mifepristone/misoprostol and misoprostol only)
- The role of “choice” in satisfaction with abortion modality
- Linguistic narratives around ending a pregnancy using medication abortion
- Expectations compared to experience in having a medication abortion
- Managing pregnancy products at home, with attention to variation in living and housing arrangements
- Levels and types of support accessed during the medication abortion process
Health systems factors, such as:
- Innovations in service delivery that enhance access for underserved or poorly-served populations
- Cost-effectiveness of service delivery models
- Supply chain issues
- The impact of payment systems on provision and use (eg, Medicaid, private insurance, out of pocket)
Natural experiments associated with medication abortion, such as:
- Policy-driven shifts in service delivery
- The relationship between the expansion of medication abortion services and the availability of aspiration/surgical abortion services
- The introduction of generic mifepristone into the marketplace
- Opening and closure of clinics offering medication abortion only
- The potential for medication abortion to reduce or (re)produce inequity
Clinical care, such as:
- Evaluations of the safety and accessibility of medication abortion in and outside of clinical settings
- Testing counseling or information recommendations for people to manage their bleeding and pregnancy products, particularly those without access to a private toilet or absorbents
- Replication of clinical research occurring in settings representative of populations with limited access to medication abortion
The following topics are not aligned with this funding opportunity:
- Projects focusing on questions where significant research is already underway, but results are not yet known (eg, the use of RhoGAM, current prevalence or practices of self-managed abortion)
- Projects exploring non-pharmaceutical substances (eg, vitamin C, pennyroyal) or contraceptive devices (eg, copper intrauterine device) that are potential pregnancy disruptors
- Projects that promote the use of self-managed abortion outside the clinical setting
Projects focused on the self-management of abortion are encouraged to proactively engage legal expertise to assess and manage risk associated with study activities.
