The Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson, which removed federal constitutional protection for abortion rights, has disproportionately impacted a number of historically marginalized groups, including young people. Integrating evidence from the fields of developmental psychology, population health science, public policy, and family planning, this presentation will review the disproportionate barriers young people faced to accessing contraception and abortion prior to Dobbs, how the landscape has shifted since Dobbs, and what we know about the impact of policy changes on adolescents’ health and well-being. I will highlight the relative lack of research on adolescents’ family planning and identify data needs and opportunities to generate evidence on this topic.

Julie Maslowsky is a developmental psychologist and population health scientist who studies adolescent health, with a focus on sexual and reproductive health including contraception and abortion. She is Associate Professor of Health Behavior and Biological Sciences in the Schools of Nursing, Associate Professor of Health Behavior and Health Education in the School of Public Health, and an affiliate of the Population Studies Center at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. Dr. Maslowsky’s research integrates adolescent developmental science with population and reproductive health to inform developmentally appropriate policies and practices on adolescent sexual and reproductive health. Her work has been funded by NICHD, NIMH, NIDA, NIMHD, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the William T. Grant Foundation.