Innovating Contraceptive Care – driven by data, grounded in health equity 

Data driven QI efforts grounded in health equity, centering history of repo injustice and person-centered principles have the potential to improve the quality of contraceptive care, but also have the potential to produce coercion. To enable CHCs to meaningfully improve quality of contraceptive care, we designed an intervention called Innovating Contraceptive Care in Community Health Centers, (ICC in CHCs) project. We matched this with tailored support and individual assessment to meet the needs of diverse service sites. The intervention consisted of the following components: 9 monthly virtual learning community, a comprehensive online change package, and collection and reporting of person-centered contraceptive care measures. We are currently analyzing data from this study including pre/post PCCC scores and Contraceptive Care Screening and Use eCQM scores. We are also qualitatively analyzing key informant interviews with CHC champions, leadership, and staff.  

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Collaboration with local partners to promote equity and person-centeredness in contraceptive access work.  

Our Person-Centered Contraceptive Care (PCCC) Framework serves as a blueprint for policymakers, program implementers, and researchers to consider a broad range of factors influencing equitable access to high-quality, person-centered contraceptive care and identify potential solutions.  With Mississippi Black Women’s Roundtable and other researcher and advocate partners in Mississippi,  we conducted qualitative research with women in Mississippi (MS) to explore their reproductive healthcare needs and experiences along the continuum of the PCCC Framework. Currently we are continue to disseminate the PCCC Framework, develop and support the piloting of a PCCC Training and Train the Trainer Program with the Mississippi contraceptive access program Converge, and disseminating research on the contraceptive care needs and experiences of reproductive-aged women in MS in collaboration with local partners. 

Coercion and Nonconsent 

Black people in the U.S. are twice as likely as white people to be coerced into procedures during perinatal and birth care, and to undergo them without their explicit consent. This was a main finding of a study by PCRHP and University of British Columbia’s (UBC) Birth Place Lab. Pregnant people of other minoritized racial identities also experience pressure from providers at higher rates than white counterparts. The results reveal key contributing factors to the persistent racial inequities in reproductive health in the U.S. The researchers believe this to be the first large study in the U.S. comparing experiences of coercion and consent during pregnancy and childbirth across racial and ethnic identities. 

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