Great piece unpacking the structural factors that can lead well-intentioned providers in the U.S. to push #LARCs over other methods - especially for Black and low-income people. I particularly like that it doesn't place sole blame on providers, acknowledging the real challenges they face working in a health system that is fundamentally broken and discriminatory. While the article is U.S.-focused, I encourage my #globalhealth colleagues to read. There are many parallels and the recommendation to (re)focus on patient-centered care seems particularly relevant in #LMICs to prevent provider-based #reproductivecoercion. A lot of gems in this piece, but this is a favorite: "...the notion of fighting poverty and saving money by reducing unplanned pregnancies misses a big point: poverty is not caused by pregnancy. Many women are poor when they get pregnant because of entrenched social issues. Advising them to wait for a better time to have a baby implies that women who are poor shouldn’t procreate. Saying that unplanned pregnancies cause poverty “stigmatizes poor women, especially poor women of color, and blames them for profound inequality that’s actually caused by things like lack of access to meaningful employment or safe schools,” says Patrick Grzanka, a psychology professor at the University of Tennessee who has studied LARC coercion." https://lnkd.in/ePsvezes
For #contraceptiveaccess to ensure reproductive autonomy, reproductive justice, and gender equity is informed consent. Just as everyone should have the right to use contraceptives should they choose, it is equally critical that they also have the right not to. "But an increasing body of evidence indicates that an important public health tool intended to give women agency over their bodies is at times deployed in ways that take it away," writes Alana Semuels. This article places a horrifying spotlight on the coercion that is all too present in many of the programs & policies that define family planning access, calling out the racist structures that underpin our health systems at tremendous scale. #ReproductiveHealth programs & counselling must center the needs and wants of the patient. https://lnkd.in/ePsvezes