Session: Disrupting Health Inequities through the Promotion of Reproductive Justice (Society for Social Work and Research 27th Annual Conference - Social Work Science and Complex Problems: Battling Inequities + Building Solutions)

The health system plays a crucial role in perpetuating inequities and disparities in reproductive health outcomes. Structural racism, limited access to care, and cost are among the many factors contributing to inequities in access to and use of reproductive health services, as well as disparities in outcomes. Consistent with the SSWR 2023 focus on Battling Inequities and Building Solutions, this symposium explores how reproductive health services can be improved and leveraged to realize reproductive justice for individuals and communities traditionally marginalized by the health system.

Keeping in line with principles of reproductive justice, the papers in this symposium each examine a unique component of reproductive well-being and span the range of reproductive health needs, including contraception, abortion, prenatal and postpartum health, and parenting support. The first paper, Rethinking the Pharmacy: Healthcare and Community Stakeholder Perceptions of Pharmacist-Prescribed Hormonal Contraception in Rural California, focuses on using pharmacies to fill gaps in reproductive health access in rural areas. The second paper, "My Initial Instinct is to Listen": Promoting Reproductive Justice with Under-housed Youth, explores frontline service workers' roles in providing reproductive health information and services with under-housed youth in an urban area. The third paper, Women's Experiences of Pre-abortion Counseling: A Mixed-Methods Systematic Review, provides a systematic literature review of pre-abortion counseling practices and experiences. The fourth paper, "Miracle in My Life": Clients' Perspectives of Reproductive Healthcare Received through Expanded Midwifery Models in Ontario, qualitatively explores how expanded models of midwifery care have been instrumental in providing patients with high-quality reproductive health and family planning services, regardless of patients' location, health insurance or citizenship status, or healthcare systems navigation experience. The final paper, Documenting Disparity: Coverage of Maternal Mortality in Select U.S. Newspapers, offers a broader look at the discourse around maternal mortality in the United States and framing of maternal health inequities in news coverage.

The first four papers look at providers, including pharmacists, social workers, physicians, nurses, and midwives, and their innovative approaches to meeting individuals' reproductive health needs in accessible and person-centered ways. The final paper takes a broader view of how we talk about health, identifies common misconceptions, and offers the opportunity to bring health equity framing to discourses regarding reproductive health. Collectively, the papers offer a holistic view of reproductive justice in the context of North American health systems. All symposium speakers have built research agendas focused around reproductive health and justice, allowing for the symposium to culminate in an engaged panel discussion and further connection between panelists' findings and implications. In addition to improving our knowledge of gaps in the health system, this symposium will discuss the health system's role in addressing versus perpetuating inequities and how innovations in health services may play a role in promoting reproductive justice.