Reproductive health has been a prominent topic surrounding the 2024 U.S. elections, with many candidates and political observers suggesting that the election’s outcome could have a significant influence on issues such as access to abortion. This Think Global event will provide context for what the candidates are saying, examining abortion from legal, medical and personal perspectives. Experts will discuss how election outcomes may shape law and policies related to abortion and reproductive health, as well as the disparities in access to reproductive health care that have emerged since many states passed abortion restrictions after the 2022 Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade. We will also hear about a Bass Connections project that has spent the past year documenting personal experiences with abortion, including the impact on women in states that have restricted abortion access.  The discussion will consider the role that physicians and healthcare researchers play in advocating for sound evidence and medical best practices on a deeply divisive political issue.

SPEAKERS

Beverly A. Gray, MD, Duke University School of Medicine, Department of Ob/Gyn, is originally from western North Carolina and completed her undergraduate and medical training at UNC-Chapel Hill. She came to Duke for residency training in Obstetrics and Gynecology, where she stayed to join the academic faculty practice. She currently leads the residency program and serves as the Division Director for the Women’s Community and Population Health. Her clinical interests are complex family planning, obstetric care, and transgender health. Her research interests are contraceptive counseling, pain control during office gynecologic procedures, and medical education.

Wesley Hogan, Ph.D., is a Research Professor at the Franklin Humanities Institute and History. Between 2003-2013, she taught at Virginia State University, where she worked with the Algebra Project and the Young People’s Project. Between 2013-2021, she served as Director of the Center for Documentary Studies. She writes and teaches the history of youth social movements, human rights, documentary, and oral history. Her most recent book, On the Freedom Side, draws a portrait of young people organizing in the spirit of Ella Baker since 1960. In July 2021, a book she and Paul Ortiz co-edited was released, People Power: History, Organizing, and Larry Goodwyn’s Democratic Vision in the Twenty-First Century.  She co-facilitates a partnership between the SNCC Legacy Project and Duke, The SNCC Digital Gateway, whose purpose is to bring the grassroots stories of the civil rights movement to a much wider public through a web portal, K12 initiative, and set of critical oral histories. With Drs. Beverly Gray and Jonas Swartz, she leads a Reproductive Care Post-Roe Bass Connections team that produces the Abortion Care Today audio archive.

Megan Huchko, MD, MPH, (moderator) has a dual appointment as an associate professor in the department of obstetrics & gynecology and the Duke Global Health Institute. Huchko, who earned her bachelor's degree at Duke, completed medical school at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and residency training at the Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center. She practices as an OB/GYN generalist and specializes in cervical cancer prevention through her clinical work and global women's health research. Her research focuses on optimizing the diagnosis and treatment of cervical cancer among vulnerable women in settings where health disparities occur. Currently, she is carrying out several large studies in partnership with the Ministries of Health in central Uganda and western Kenya to evaluate the optimal implementation strategy for HPV-based cervical cancer screening in rural settings.

Manasvi Reddy is a senior undergraduate studying Public Policy on the pre-medical track. Her interests lie in reproductive healthcare, rural healthcare access, and healthcare communications. She was originally drawn to this space because of her upbringing in a small town in North Texas and continues to find inspiration in the work done by her Bass Connections research team. Manasvi aspires to work at the intersection of medicine and policy as a future physician. 

Gerson H Smoger, JD, PhD of the law firm, Smoger and Associates, and the current Board Chair of Physicians for Human Rights, has long been committed to human rights while specializing as a lawyer in environmental litigation and consumer fraud litigation. Public Justice has named him national Trial Lawyer of the Year. As an appellate attorney, he has often worked at the intersection between law and medicine, including filing US Supreme Court briefs for the New England Journal of Medicine, the American Medical Association and US Senators. He represented Admiral Zumwalt and the Agent Orange Coordinating Council in getting benefits for Vietnam veterans for Agent Orange and has been named Missouri Environmentalist of the Year. The American Association for Justice has honored him with its Harry Philo Award for outstanding contributions to the civil justice system and advancing the safety and protection of American consumers. Currently, he serves on the advisory boards of the Human Rights Center at the University of California Berkeley and the Civil Justice Research Initiative. He also serves on the boards of Public Citizen, Public Justice and The Conversation (U.S.).

This is a hybrid event with both in-person and remote attendance options. Attendance in person is encouraged. Lunch will be available.