Claire Reardon

My journey into reproductive health research was catalyzed by the overturning of Roe v. Wade, which happened shortly after I finished my master's degree. At that point, I had been doing research on anti-abortion protesters outside of Planned Parenthood clinics in Illinois, and that experience propelled my research questions for my PhD. I wanted to refine reproductive rights as my research area, so I took that into the University of Kentucky and connected with a mentor who does work on violence against women. My research bridges the interpersonal violence research with larger structural coercion. Through attending conferences, I met Laura Lindbergh at Rutgers University School of Public Health, who does work on contraceptive access in New Jersey, and I now work with her as a research assistant. What led me into what I'm doing now is really the federal overturning of the constitutional right to get abortion access, and seeing that immediate need for people who are having difficulties not only accessing most forms of reproductive health, like contraception and other things, but then also, namely, abortion. I'm currently in the midst of my dissertation and expected to graduate in 2027.