As an intern with the Sexual Rights and Sexual Health Internship Program, I continued my work as a Research Assistant under the mentorship of Dr. Clare Daniel, Senior Professor of Practice and Director of Research at Tulane University's Newcomb Institute. Alongside Grace Hoegler (MPH student) and Dr. Martha Silva, Assistant Professor in the Department of International Health and Sustainable Development, I participated in a scoping review of the published literature investigating self-managed abortions (SMA) in legally restricted settings. This scoping review examines how researchers study SMA in legally restricted settings, focusing on their methodologies and how ethical and legal considerations are addressed and discussed, if at all.
We screened over 7,400 articles using Covidence, a web-based platform that allows researchers to collaborate on systematic reviews, which allowed us to identify 395 articles for full-text review. What made me most proud was not just the volume of work, but how our team navigated such a legally and ethically nuanced topic on a global scale. The magnitude of our scoping review felt daunting at first, but learning how to navigate Covidence, refine our inclusion criteria through ongoing communication, and engage in open discussions about article conflicts made the process deeply rewarding. It has been both intellectually rigorous and highly collaborative.
Through weekly team meetings and constant dialogue about article conflicts, I have learned to ask better questions, think more critically about methodologies, and problem-solve independently while relying heavily on my team's insights. This balance and commitment to the iterative process shaped my thoughts about conducting research in the future. Our use of analyst triangulation – where multiple team members independently evaluated articles before reaching a consensus – highlighted the necessity of sharing responsibility when working in sensitive research areas. This process taught me to embrace iteration and uncertainty as part of ethical research, especially when dealing with topics like SMA that are fraught with legal, political, and human risks.
I presented a poster project, "It Takes a Village: Considerations when Conducting a Scoping Review on Self-Managed Abortions in Illegal Settings," at the TRICS 2025 conference and shared our work at Conceiving Equity 2025 with other colleagues and friends of the Newcomb Institute. These experiences offered great exposure to networking opportunities with medical students and other scholars in the field and improved my public speaking skills.
This experience has redefined how I understand research, not just as a means of generating knowledge, but as a moral and political responsibility. Our team is learning from scholars across the globe who have spent decades working in illegal contexts. Their insights are helping us understand how they have managed legally and ethically challenging research contexts. We hope this work pushes people to see why this research matters urgently, especially in post-Dobbs Louisiana.
