My general interests coalesce around transitional periods in people's lives and how we support them and their community through them - whether that is abortion, pregnancy or end of life care. I am particularly interested in how structural and intersectional inequalities impact people’s experiences of these periods in their lives and their care.
I draw on critical public health, epidemiology, sociology, and anthropology, amongst other disciplines and epistemologies. I am a Research Fellow in PHES, where I am working on my NIHR/Wellbeing of Women Doctoral Fellowship. During my fellowship I will be exploring how the introduction of telemedicine has impacted the accessibility and equity of abortion services in England and Wales. In addition to my role at the School, I am also the Research & Engagement Lead at the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS)- the UK's largest abortion provider. I have been working there since 2018 on research with the aim of improving access to high-quality abortion services for all who need it.
I was a carer for one of my parents, Pip, who died of a brain tumour in 2022 and happened to be transgender. This time in my life was completely transformative, and has changed my relationship to my work and the wider world. Pip's experiences, and mine of looking after her, are captured in this report from Hospice UK.
Affiliations
Teaching
- I am a seminar lead for module 1804, Sexual Health.
- I have delivered an Expert Session on Population Studies which is part of the MSc in Demography and Health.
- I have supervised masters students at Imperial College London and LSHTM on a number of different projects related to abortion care since 2019.
Research
I am currently working on my NIHR doctoral fellowship which explores how the introduction of telemedicine has impacted the accessibility and equity of abortion services in England and Wales. This multi-method study includes a large natural experiment which analyses data on the 1.5 million abortions which took place in England and Wales between 2017 and 2023. I am also interviewing patients who have had abortions to understand more about their experiences of accessing care in the era of telemedicine. My work is coproduced with abortion providers and advocates, and deeply informed by feminist principles. By connecting lived experiences of inequities of access to an analysis of structural and service-level forces I'm aiming to get a better understanding of how to make abortion care better for everyone who needs it. I received a Best Abstract award for my presentation of early findings from my PhD at the British Society of Abortion Care Provider's Annual Conference in 2025.
I have also undertaken and led on a number of research projects in abortion care and pregnancy since 2018 within my role at the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS). This includes research that has had a direct impact on patient care and policy at a local, national and international level. Some areas of work include:
- Patient experiences of ultrasound scans during abortion care which has informed policy and practice advocating for an as-indicated approach to pre-abortion ultrasound.
- The acceptability of home-use of mifepristone (telemedicine).
- The burden of travelling for abortion care in the UK and the USA.
- "Choice" in abortion care, including method of treatment.
- Critical engagement wtih public and patient involvement in abortion care.
- The WRISK Project which sought to better understand women and pregnant people's experiences of risk communication and public health messaging during pregnancy. Work I led from this project was in the top 10 most-read publications in BMJ Open that year, and has informed national guidance on prescribing during pregnancy. The findings of the project were made into a short film.
Selected Publications
