Departmental Affiliations
Center & Institute Affiliations
Suzanne Bell, PhD ’18, MPH, studies patterns of contraceptive use and abortion, particularly in the context of population-based surveys.
Research Interests
Contraception; Abortion; Fertility; Family planning; Survey research; Measurement; Demography; Epidemiology
Experiences & Accomplishments
Dr. Suzanne Bell has a PhD from the Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health with a focus in demography and a Master's in Public Health from the University of California, Berkeley. She studies patterns of contraceptive use and abortion, particularly in the context of population-based surveys. Dr. Bell leads Performance Monitoring for Action's (PMA's) abortion work and provides programmatic and technical support for PMA at large. Through this work, Dr. Bell seeks to advance understanding of the role of abortion in women’s reproductive lives through improved measurement of abortion incidence and safety in low-resource settings. Additionally, her research assesses structural factors that contribute to disparities in reproductive health behaviors and outcomes and quantifies inequities in access to and quality of contraceptive and abortion services in the United States and internationally.
Honors & Awards
2017 – Laurie Schwab Zabin Award
2017 – Edward J. Dehne Award in Population Dynamics
2015, 2016 – Endowed Fellowship in Family Planning and Reproductive Health
2015 – Bill and Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health Travel Scholarship
2015 – JHSPH Center for Global Public Health Research Scholarship
2014, 2015 – Robertson Scholarship
2010 – UC Berkeley Bixby Center for Population Health and Sustainability Practicum Fellowship
2009, 2010 – US Department of Education Foreign Language Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship
Select Publications
Select publications from last three years:
Bell SO, Stuart E, Gemmill A. (2023). Association between Texas’ 2021 ban on abortion in early pregnancy and changes in live births. JAMA. doi:10.1001/jama.2023.12034
Bell SO, Karp C, PMA Principal Investigators Group, Moreau C, Gemmill A. (2023). “If I use family planning, I may have trouble getting pregnant next time I want to”: A multicountry survey-based exploration of perceived contraceptive induced fertility impairment and its relationship to contraceptive use. Contraception X. doi: 10.1016/j.conx.2023.100093
Bell SO, Dozier JL, Casubhoy I, Sufrin C. (2023). Impact of New Abortion Restrictions on People in Prison: Estimated Distance to Abortion Providers and Number of Incarcerated People without Abortion Access. Contraception. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.contraception.2023.110278
Bell SO, Berger B, Sufrin C, Dozier J, Burke A. (2023). An Exploratory Study of COVID-19-Related Changes in Abortion Service Availability and Use in Washington, DC, Maryland, and Virginia. Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health. 1:1. doi.org/10.1363/psrh.12220.
Bell SO, Guiella G, Byrne ME, Bazie F, Onadja Y, Thomas H, Moreau C. (2022). Induced abortion incidence and safety in Burkina Faso in 2020: Results from a population-based survey using direct and social network-based estimation approaches. Plos One. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0278168.
Bell SO, Shankar M, OlaOlorun F, Hyacinthe A, Omoluabi E, Guiella G, Ahmed S, Moreau C. (2021). Postabortion Care Facility Readiness and Access in Nigeria and Cote d’Ivoire. Health Policy and Planning 36(7): 1077-1089. doi.org/10.1093/heapol/czab068.