Call for papers - Management of miscarriages in legally restrictive settings

Guest Editors

Mara Buchbinder, PhD, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA
Rachel Flink-Bochacki, MD, MPH, Albany Medical Center, USA
Courtney Schreiber, MD, MPH, PEACE (the Pregnancy Early Access Center), Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, USA

Submission Status: Open | Submission Deadline: 2 February 2026

BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth is calling for submissions to our Collection on the Management of miscarriages in legally restrictive settings.

This Collection seeks to illuminate the unique challenges faced in managing miscarriages in legally prohibitive contexts. Experiencing a miscarriage can be deeply distressing, especially in areas where abortion laws are stringent. In these situations, healthcare providers face significant challenges in offering care while adhering to legal guidelines. Addressing the complexities of miscarriage management in such settings is vital for ensuring the physical and emotional health of those experiencing miscarriage as well as legal protections for those providing care.

New Content Item This Collection supports and amplifies research related to SDG 3: Good Health & Well-Being and SDG 5: Gender Equality.

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Meet the Guest Editors

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Mara Buchbinder, PhD, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA

Dr Buchbinder is Professor and Chair of Social Medicine and Adjunct Professor of Anthropology at University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, as well as core faculty in the UNC Center for Bioethics. Dr Buchbinder is a medical anthropologist with broad interests in cultures of health, illness, and medicine in the United States. She is the co-principal investigator (with Erika Sabbath) of the Study of OB-GYNs in Post-Roe America (SOPRA).

Rachel Flink-Bochacki, MD, MPH, Albany Medical Center, USA

Dr Flink-Bochacki is an Obstetrician-Gynecologist and Complex Family Planning subspecialist practicing in Albany, New York. She is an Associate Professor and serves as the Division Director for Family Planning as well as the Associate Residency Program Director for Research. She received her medical degree from the University at Buffalo, completed residency at the University of Rochester, and obtained her fellowship training and Masters of Public Health at the University of Pittsburgh. Her research and clinical interests lie in the overlap between abortion and pregnancy loss and in improving care for patients facing abnormal and undesired pregnancy.

Courtney Schreiber, MD, MPH, PEACE (the Pregnancy Early Access Center), Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, USA

Dr Schreiber is the Emily and Stuart Mudd Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Chief of the Division of Family Planning in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, and the founding director of PEACE, the Pregnancy Early Access Center at Penn Medicine. She has devoted her career as a physician-scientist to filling scientific and healthcare delivery gaps in women’s health and reproduction, with a focus on the treatment and prevention of early pregnancy complications.

About the Collection

BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth is calling for submissions to our Collection on the Management of miscarriages in legally restrictive settings.

Miscarriages are a common yet often traumatic experience for many individuals and couples, particularly in regions where induced abortion is subject to restrictive laws. The clinical management of miscarriage and induced abortion are very similar, with frequent diagnostic overlap, leading legal restrictions on abortion to affect care for pregnancy loss. In such contexts, the management of miscarriages can become complex, requiring healthcare professionals to navigate legal and ethical challenges while providing compassionate care and avoiding potentially life-threatening situations. The approach to spontaneous miscarriage in these restrictive settings may be influenced by various non-clinical factors, including access to medical resources, societal stigma, and legal considerations surrounding reproductive health. Addressing the management of miscarriages in legally restrictive settings is a significant and timely issue, as it directly affects the physical and emotional well-being of individuals facing these increasingly common situations.

The Collection invites researchers and clinicians in fields including maternal-fetal medicine, obstetrics, emergency medicine, public health, and the social sciences to contribute research that explores topics including, but not limited to, ethical considerations in miscarriage management, patient-centered approaches to miscarriage care, legal implications for obstetric management of miscarriage, and healthcare access in abortion-restrictive environments across the globe.

All manuscripts submitted to this journal, including those submitted to collections and special issues, are assessed in line with our editorial policies and the journal’s peer review process. Reviewers and editors are required to declare competing interests and can be excluded from the peer review process if a competing interest exists.

There are currently no articles in this collection.

Submission Guidelines

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This Collection welcomes submission of original Research Articles. Should you wish to submit a different article type, please read our submission guidelines to confirm that type is accepted by the journal. Articles for this Collection should be submitted via our submission system, Snapp. During the submission process you will be asked whether you are submitting to a Collection, please select "Management of miscarriages in legally restrictive settings" from the dropdown menu.

All manuscripts submitted to this journal, including those submitted to collections and special issues, are assessed in line with our editorial policies and the journal’s peer review process. Reviewers and editors are required to declare competing interests and can be excluded from the peer review process if a competing interest exists.