Abortion care: Focusing on the future

Patricia A Lohr trained in obstetrics and gynaecology at the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center followed by a fellowship in complex family planning at the University of Pittsburgh. She has been Medical Director of British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) since 2007 and is also Director of BPAS’ Centre for Reproductive Research & Communication, which designs and delivers research that furthers access to evidence-based reproductive healthcare and choices. Her research interests include novel methods of abortion service delivery. Patricia is a co-investigator on the NIHR-funded SACHA study, which is building a comprehensive evidence base for new directions in abortion care. She is widely published and is an Associate Editor for BMJ Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare. Patricia has contributed to clinical practice guidelines for the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG), Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare, National Institute of Health and Care Excellence, World Health Organization, and Society of Family Planning. She is also passionate about abortion education and advises the RCOG on curricula, as well as developing and delivering training. She is a co-founder and Education Advisor for British Society of Abortion Care Providers, and an advisory board member for the RCOG’s ‘Making Abortion Safe’ programme and the charity ‘Abortion Talk’.

Annabel Sowemimo is a doctor, activist and writer. As well as being a Sexual & Reproductive Health trainee in the National Health Service (NHS), she is also the founder of community-based organisation ‘Decolonising Contraception’, formed by and for Black and people of colour to address the colonial history of sexual and reproductive health. Within her specialty, she is interested in tackling gender-based violence and improving access for marginalised groups. She is a regular columnist for gal-dem and frequently in demand on TV and radio. Annabel is a part-time PhD candidate and Harold Moody Scholar at King’s College London. She is also a trustee for the charity ‘Medact’. Annabel firmly believes that healthcare should be about empowering people with knowledge to make informed choices about their bodies. She spends her spare time campaigning on reproductive justice, against NHS cuts and improving healthcare for marginalised groups

Francis Ray White is a Reader in Sociology at the University of Westminster where they have been teaching gender, sexuality and body studies for over 15 years. Francis’ research draws together fat, queer and (trans)gender theory and explores how those intersections are lived and embodied. Francis is currently working on research projects on fat/trans embodiment, and the experiences of non-binary people in higher education in the UK. Their previous research has been published in journals and books including Sexualities, Critical Public Health, The Routledge International Handbook of Fat Studies and Non-Binary Lives: An Anthology of Intersecting Identities. From 2017–2021 Francis was a co-investigator on the ESRC-funded project Trans Pregnancy: An International Exploration of Transmasculine Practices of Reproduction. The Trans Pregnancy project was the largest international study of trans practices of conception, pregnancy and reproduction to date and collected data in the UK, the US and Canada, Australia and Europe. Research from the Trans Pregnancy project has been published widely including in the International Journal of Transgender Health, Body and Society (forthcoming) and BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth. Aside from their academic work, Francis is also a youth work volunteer and occasional public speaker for the charity ‘Gendered Intelligence’. 

Monica McLemore is a tenured associate professor in the Family Health Care Nursing Department at the University of California, San Francisco and an affiliated scientist with Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health. She currently holds the Thelma Shobe Endowed Chair and of co-directs the Abortion Care Training Incubator for Outstanding Nurse Scholars (ACTIONS) fellowship programme. She retired from active clinical practice after a 28-year clinical nursing career in 2019; however, she continues to provide flu and COVID-19 vaccines. Her programme of research is focused on understanding reproductive health and justice. To date, she has over 87 peer-reviewed articles, OpEds and commentaries and her research has been cited in five amicus briefs to the Supreme Court of the United States, and three National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine reports, and a data visualisation project in the 2019 Future of Medicine edition of Scientific American.

Linda S. Franck holds the Jack and Elaine Koehn Endowed Chair in Paediatric Nursing at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), School of Nursing and co-directs the Abortion Care Training Incubator for Outstanding Nurse Scholars (ACTIONS) fellowship programme. In 2022 she will lead the first family-centred care research centre, a partnership between Ronald McDonald House Charities and UCSF. Dr Franck has a particular interest in improving the patient and family experience of health care and has pioneered interventions to engage patients, families and communities in healthcare delivery and research co-design. She re-joined the UCSF faculty in 2010, after a decade at the Institute of Child Health, University College London, where she served as the first Chair of Children’s Nursing Research in the UK. She is a Fellow of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and of the American Academy of Nursing. In 2020, she was inducted into the Sigma Nursing Researcher Hall of Fame and named the UCSF School of Nursing Research Mentor of the Year.

Nikki Lanshaw is the Project Director of the Abortion Care Training Incubator for Outstanding Nurse Scholars (ACTIONS) fellowship programme at University of California, San Francisco. Her current policy and research projects are dedicated to protecting access to abortion care and expanding the the reproductive health workforce in California. She received her MPH from University of California, Berkeley in 2019, where she was a Kaiser Permanente Public Health Fellow. She was a Women’s Policy Institute State Fellow in 2021 and is currently the Co-Chair of the Abortion Task Force in the Sexual and Reproductive Health Section of the American Public Health Association.