UCSF Family & Community Medicine's Dr. Jen Karlin is featured in a new NPR/All Things Considered story about self-managed medication abortion. Dr. Karlin’s research explores how physicians understand and support self-sourced, self-managed abortion —and finds that many reproductive health providers view the practice as clinically safe, ethically justifiable, and a necessary part of reproductive justice in a post-Roe landscape. As abortion restrictions increase, Dr. Karlin’s work offers guidance for how providers can align their professional responsibilities with the real-world needs of patients seeking care outside formal systems.
You can listen to other versions of this story on VPM and the Consider This podcast.
Read Dr. Karlin's related research:
- Karlin J, Novaes J, Sarnaik S, Holt K, Steinauer J, Dehlendorf C. “It’s a reality that we in medicine should catch up with”: Physician’s Attitudes about Self-Sourced and Managed Abortion in the United States. Social Science & Medicine. March, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.117708.
- Karlin J, Carole Joffe. Self-Sourced Medication Abortion, Physician Authority, and the Contradictions of Abortion Care. J Health Polit Policy Law. 2023, Aug; 10449932. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/03616878-10449932.
- Karlin, J and Hodge C. Intimacy, Anonymity, and “Care with Nothing in the Way” on an Abortion Hotline. Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry. 2022. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11013-022-09810-4.
- Karlin J, Perritt J. It Is Time to Change the Standard of Medication Abortion. JAMA Intern Med. 2022;182(5):491–493. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2022.0216
- Karlin J, Sarnaik S, Holt K, Dehlendorf C, Joffe C, Steinauer J. Greasing the wheels: The impact of COVID-19 on US physician attitudes and practices regarding medication abortion. Contraception. 2021. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.contraception.2021.04.022
