My thesis aims to examine how partisan politics and politicization of women’s health issues adversely impacts the health and wellbeing of women. I will explore this topic within the broader context of partisanship, morality, feminism, and social justice in an attempt to dissect the arguments propagated by both the pro-life and pro-choice spheres. Political polarization results in limitations for reproductive health resources for women, particularly low-income and minority women who rely on government-funded healthcare to meet their needs. Moreover, reducing women’s healthcare decision-making opportunities not only has a destructive impact on their health and financial security, but also poses significant human rights implications concerning bodily autonomy and gender equality. Through the literature review, I intend on highlighting the role of conservative politics in diminishing available services, to the detriment of women, particularly low-income and marginalized women. I plan to demonstrate this hypothesis through a literature review, analysis of Roe v. Wade, and a review of the historical trajectory that illuminates factors related to the availability and accessibility of reproductive resources. Lastly, I will critique the political narratives pushed by both liberal and conservative media and highlight the need for a comprehensive reproductive justice framework for achieving positive SHRH outcomes.

This thesis address the disparities seen in access to quality healthcare between rural and urban Namibian mothers. This thesis design also delves into the effectiveness of recent initiatives, such as mobile clinics, and their ability to diminish these barriers and overall impact childhood mortality rates. The methods of this research included a literature review that identified and analyzed the socioeconomic barriers these mothers face, interviews with health care professionals in Namibia, and an application of the H.M. Becker Health Belief Model. This design determined that barriers to care included, income, education, transportation, and employment attainability. Through the analysis of the Health Belief Model, it was determined that the benefits of receiving care outweigh the barriers to quality care and mobile clinics do accurately identify and diminish these barriers.

Minority mental health patients face many health inequities and inequalities that may stem from implicit bias and a lack of cultural awareness from their healthcare providers. I analyzed the current literature evaluating implicit bias among healthcare providers and culturally specific life traumas that Latinos and African Americans face that can impact their mental health. Additionally, I researched a current mental health assessments tool, the Child and Adolescent Trauma Survey (CATS), and evaluated it for the use on Latino and African American patients. Face-to-face interviews with two healthcare providers were also used to analyze the CATS for its’ applicability to Latino and African American patients. Results showed that these assessments were not sufficient in capturing culturally specific life traumas of minority patients. Based on the literature review and analysis of the interviews with healthcare providers, a novel assessment tool, the Culturally Traumatic Events Questionnaire (CTEQ), was created to address the gaps that currently make up other mental health assessment tools used on minority patients.

Studies over the past years have collected data on the opinions of women in the workforce related to family planning and societal norms (Buddhapriya, 2009). However, these studies do not address the opinions of college students, the majority of whom have not yet entered the workforce yet, may have strong opinions about whether or not career ambitions and the desire for children are mutually exclusive. In addition, these studies mainly focus on the hardships of women already in the workforce, rather than to understand how to broaden the workforce to accommodate women before entering motherhood. Therefore, to encourage mothers in the workforce to strive for high professional achievement, it is important to first encourage those making life-changing decisions based on degree choice in college. In doing this, 111 Arizona State University (ASU) students of all years, gender, and college choice were surveyed to better understand the difference between men's and women’s opinions on family planning in relation to career. The results of the survey concluded that more women have not let family planning affect their choice of major and career aspirations. Although previous studies have shown that a job affects motherhood in the professional aspect, this does not seem to be a reason to alter career choices.

The minority population of African American women (AAW) have been found to be most at risk when it comes to certain negative health outcomes (Hales, Carroll, Fryar, & Ogden, 2017). The purpose of this literature review is to discuss the negative effects of perceived discrimination on stress levels for obese AAW. Analysis of several studies have found that perceived discrimination increases the stress levels of AAW and can lead to an increase in physical health problems such as poor eating behaviors, which can lead to weight gain and chronic health issues such as hypertension, Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus, cardiovascular disease, osteoarthritis, sleep apnea, fatty liver disease, and pregnancy complications (Cooper, Thayer, & Waldstein, 2013; Hales, Carroll, Fryar, & Ogden, 2017; Hayman, McIntyre, & Abbey, 2015; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, 2015). Through research, increased stress due to perceived discrimination was also found to have negative impacts on mental health such as depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, rumination, negative racial regard, and psychological distress (Carter, Walker, Cutrona, Simons, & Beach, 2016; Hill, & Hoggard, 2018; Knox-Kazimierczuk, Geller, Sellers, Baszile, & Smith-Shockley, 2018; Pascoe, & Richman, 2009). Article analysis found that many AAW use negative coping mechanisms such as rumination, negative racial regard, poor eating behaviors, and repressing feels of race-related events to combat stress when dealing with race-based events (Carter, Walker, Cutrona, Simons, & Beach, 2016; Hayman, McIntyre, & Abbey, 2015; Hill, & Hoggard, 2018). Positive coping mechanisms discussed to reduce stress and chronic disease included prayer and active coping to counteract the effects of rumination (Cooper, Thayer, & Waldstein, 2013; Hill, & Hoggard, 2018).