Bio          

Kathleen Broussard completed her PhD in Sociology at the University of Texas at Austin (2022), where she specialized in Demography as a Fellow at the Population Research Center. Prior to this, she earned an MA from the University of Chicago.

Her work appears in Social Science & Medicine, Population Studies, American Journal of Public Health, Contraception, and Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, among others. It has also been featured across major news outlets, including The New York Times and The Atlantic and has been cited in Amicus briefs for two cases related to abortion access and provision, June Medical Services v. Russo and Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. In support of her work, she has received funding from the NIH and the Society of Family Planning and recognized with awards from the American Sociological Association and the Eastern Sociological Society.

 

Research

Substantive research interests: sexual and reproductive health, social demography, fertility, gender, medicine, and healthcare

 Department cluster: Population and Health; Inequalities and Institutions.

Research overview:  Broussard’s core research agenda describes the individual, social, and structural determinants of reproductive health-seeking behaviors and outcomes. She employs a diverse set of methods, including surveys, interviews, and content analysis, to explore people’s experiences seeking reproductive care outside of the formal healthcare setting. Her research seeks to understand how people make meaning of sexual and reproductive health events in their lives and how social institutions and technologies shape their experiences and outcomes.

 Current projects:  Broussard’s current work draws from survey data and in-depth interviews with women living near the U.S.-Mexico border who attempted to end a pregnancy outside of the formal healthcare setting. In addition to describing the characteristics, motivations, and experiences of this often-hidden population, she analyzes how women navigate their social networks to gain access to health-related information and resources in restrictive contexts. This project is supported by a grant from the Society of Family Planning. 

A second branch of Broussard’s research examines fertility desires and intentions within a reproductive justice framework. She is especially interested in the causes and consequences of the so-called ‘fertility gap’ (the difference between the number of children a person desires and the number of children they actually have). Using both surveys and in-depth interviews, Broussard hopes to develop new metrics that illuminate the factors that inhibit people from achieving their reproductive goals and account for the complexity of fertility desires and outcomes.

 

Teaching

Sociology 398: Reproductive Health and Rights

Sociology 391: Research Methods

 

Selected Publications

Broussard, Kathleen and Andréa Becker. 2021. ”Self-Removal of Long-Acting Reversible Contraception: A Content Analysis of YouTube Videos” Contraception, 104(6):654-658.

Broussard, Kathleen. 2020. “The Changing Landscape of Abortion Care: Embodied Experiences of Structural Stigma in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland” Social Science & Medicine 245:1-9. 

Broussard, Kathleen and Abigail Weitzman. 2020. “Sibling Mortality and Fertility Ideals from the High-Mortality Context of Peru” Population Studies, 74(2):179-195. 

Aiken, Abigail R. A., Kathleen Broussard, Dana Johnson, Elisa Padron, Jennifer E. Starling, and James G. Scott. 2020. “Knowledge, interest, and motivations surrounding self-managed medication abortion among patients at three Texas clinics” American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 223(2):238.e1-238.e10.

Broussard, Kathleen, Payal Hathi, and Diane Coffey. 2019. “Assessing public awareness and use of medical abortion via mobile phone survey in India” Contraception, 100(6):457-463.

Aiken, Abigail R.A., Kathleen Broussard, Dana Johnson, and Elisa Padron. 2018. “Motivations and

Experiences of People Seeking Medication Abortion Online in the United States” Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, 50(4):157-163.