What happens to the women who fall through the cracks of health care reform? Lessons from Massachusetts.

We investigated the impact of Massachusetts health care reform on low-income women's experiences accessing insurance and health services, specifically reproductive health services such as contraception. Our findings suggest that concentrated efforts are needed to make sure that health services are available and accessible to populations who fall through the cracks of health care reform, including immigrants, minors and young adults, and women living outside urban areas. In addition, systems changes are needed to ensure that women going through common life transitions, such as pregnancy, marriage, moving, or graduating from school, have continuous access to insurance, and therefore health services, as their lives change.

Access to contraception after health care reform in Massachusetts: a mixed-methods study investigating benefits and barriers.

Background: In 2006, Massachusetts passed sweeping health care reform legislation aimed at improving access to health care for residents. This study investigates how this landmark legislation affected contraceptive access for low-income women.

Study Design: This study included (a) 16 in-depth interviews with family planning providers, (b) 9 focus group discussions with 52 low-income English- and Spanish-speaking women, (c) 10 self-administered surveys of family planning administrators and (d) a systematic review of Web sites for government-subsidized insurance plans.

Strategies for securing funding for abortion under the Hyde Amendment: a multistate study of abortion providers' experiences managing Medicaid.

Objectives: We investigated systematic barriers, identified by previous research, that prevent women from obtaining Medicaid coverage for an abortion even when it should legally be available: when the pregnancy resulted from rape or incest or threatens the mother's life. We also aimed to document strategies to improve access to federal Medicaid funding in qualifying cases.

Methods: We conducted in-depth interviews from 2007 to 2009 with representatives of 49 facilities that provided abortions in 11 states.

Self-induction of abortion among women in the United States.

Recent media coverage and case reports have highlighted women's attempts to end their pregnancies by self-inducing abortions in the United States. This study explored women's motivations for attempting self-induction of abortion. We surveyed women in clinic waiting rooms in Boston, San Francisco, New York, and a city in Texas to identify women who had attempted self-induction.