In June 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. It is now replaced by Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, often shortened to just “Dobbs.” The Dobbs decision removed federal protections for abortion access. Now, each state can make its own abortion policies.
Prior to Dobbs, abortion care was generally allowed for people whose health conditions can complicate healthy pregnancies. Since Dobbs, these people might not have the same access to abortion care.
Our study, Investigating Time-sensitive Reproductive Health Equity Post-Dobbs for Patients with ChronIc Disease (INTREPID), will evaluate the impact of abortion policies on the health and well-being of patients. We will survey healthy pregnant individuals and pregnant people with chronic diseases (such as, cardiovascular disease, cancer, systemic lupus erythematosus) who are looking for abortion care. We seek to understand if and how they are able to access abortion, and the impact on their health and well-being.
We will also survey physicians who care for people with chronic diseases to see if there is an impact on how they provide healthcare pre- and post-Dobbs.
The INTREPID research team has experience in internal medicine, obstetrics, family planning research, health equity, health policy, and epidemiology.
The INTREPID study has been funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and is approved and monitored by the University of Pittsburgh Institutional Review Board. Our IRB number is: STUDY23030142.
You can read more information on NIH Reporter.
In early 2024, a sample of physician experts in New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio were asked to complete an online Qualtrics survey distributed through email using a listserv from a service that contracts with the American Medical Association. For those physicians who didn’t complete the survey electronically, the survey was sent via mail enclosed with a $10 bill as a form of appreciation for the time spent in completing the survey and returning it to us. Surveys were designed to take 7-10 minutes on average to complete.
Multiple measures have been taken to ensure confidentiality of physician responses. The study procedures and data management system have been IRB-approved to protect respondents' security and confidentiality. Physician survey responses are not linked to their names. Our contract with the American Medical Association does not allow the research team to maintain physician identifiers or contact information unless physicians volunteer this information. Even then, these names and identifiers are not associated with survey responses in any way. Our survey data are maintained on a private server in Pennsylvania. The NIH has granted a Certificate of Confidentiality, which allows our team to refuse to disclose any information on our research participants to any civil, criminal, administrative, legislative, or other proceedings, whether on the federal, state, or local levels. In preparation for this study, our research team engaged in training on digital security measures.This process is highly confidential and IRB-approved to protect respondents’ security. You can read more information about how we have implemented to protect your information in the section, “What are we doing to protect the information of participants in our study?” below.
For those physicians who are willing to be contacted once a year for follow-up surveys, contact information can be submitted separately from their answers into a secure Qualtrics platform. Those individuals may be contacted again to complete confidential surveys or brief interviews in subsequent years in response to national and state-wide policy changes.
We are recruiting people who are seeking abortion care or information about getting access to an abortion. We are very interested in the experiences of people with chronic medical conditions. We are recruiting via advertisements in abortion clinics, using Google, and a variety of social media platforms. Our surveys will ask questions about their experiences with seeking abortion care or information about abortion.
We have a series of surveys for people to complete. The first survey should be taken while pregnant. The second survey will be delivered to people’s email six weeks later. The next surveys will be a year later, two years later, and again three years later. People are not required to complete the surveys if they do not want to. Their information will be kept confidential.
Each survey will take around 30 minutes to complete. Participants who are eligible and who complete the surveys will receive an e-gift card.
Multiple measures have been taken to ensure confidentiality of people's responses. The study procedures and data management system are highly confidential and IRB-approved to protect respondents' security. The study procedures and data management system have been IRB-approved to protect respondents' security and confidentiality. Participants' names and identifiers are not associated with survey responses in any way. Our survey data are maintained on a private server in Pennsylvania. The NIH has granted a Certificate of Confidentiality, which allows our team to refuse to disclose any information on our research participants to any civil, criminal, administrative, legislative, or other proceedings, whether on the federal, state, or local levels. In preparation for this study, our research team engaged in training on digital security measures. Bots and fraudulent responses will be deleted as they are identified.
Mehret Birru Talabi, MD, PhD, is Assistant Professor of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology. Her research is focused on optimizing reproductive health management and health care for people with rheumatic diseases and other chronic medical conditions that increase the risk of adverse pregnancy and perinatal outcomes.