Madison Butler '25 - Project Healthy Women Post-Roe V. Wade at Duke University

This summer, I participated in Story + at Duke University. Story + is a summer research experience for students interested in exploring interdisciplinary arts, humanities, and interpretative social science research topics and methodologies. The program combines hands-on research with storytelling to create dynamic outcomes for diverse public audiences. During the six weeks of the program, I was apart of the Healthy Women: Post-Roe v. Wade team. Roe v. Wade was a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that established a woman's right to an abortion is included as a right to privacy protected by the Fourteenth Amendment; this prohibits states from revoking any person's liberty without due process of law. Within this team, I learned about six key areas of women's health: historical context, policy, data/legal security, interviewing, medical knowledge, and outreach/communications.

With this knowledge, I worked with highly acclaimed Duke Historians and Professors, expertly trained Duke Gynecologists,  graduate student mentors, and three fellow undergraduates to support and educate various communities on women's health post-Roe v. Wade. We dived into this research by first uncovering the history of gynecology. The study of women’s health can be traced back to slavery when scientists experimented on African Americans to discover popular medical injuries like the tearing of women’s fistula after giving birth. Our team collected this knowledge and the information from Dobbs v. Jackson (a ruling where the U.S. Supreme Court established there is no constitutional right to abortion and overruled Roe v. Wade) and SB 20 (when the federal court made a ruling that severely restricts access to abortion and bans care after the 12th week of pregnancy) understand women’s health and abortion and share our insight with communities in need. These audiences included high school students, college students, low-income, and LGBTQ individuals who are impacted by this change. I collaborated with my teammates to create a website, social media accounts, and articles to teach and share resources with people who may be pregnant or impacted by the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

In addition to this, I am proud to say I have enrolled in the Bass Connections team for this project and will be continuing this work during my fall and spring semesters. I am so grateful for all the connections and skills I developed over the course of these 6 weeks, and I am excited to share my experience as I emerge into my junior year.