Isaac Maddow-Zimet
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imaddowzimet.bsky.social
Isaac Maddow-Zimet
@imaddowzimet.bsky.social
1.6K followers 210 following 60 posts
Data Scientist at Guttmacher; I lead the Monthly Abortion Provision Study (https://www.guttmacher.org/monthly-abortion-provision-study) but post here mainly about statistics.
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Reposted by Isaac Maddow-Zimet
kimyaf.bsky.social
Shield laws have become a lifeline for abortion patients and providers in the US post-Dobbs, which is precisely why conservative policymakers are turning to the courts, Congress, and state legislatures to attack this critical method of care. 🧵
www.guttmacher.org/2025/09/atta...
Attacks on Shield Laws Are the Next Step in Criminalizing Abortion Care
www.guttmacher.org
September 10, 2025 at 2:54 PM
imaddowzimet.bsky.social
Proud to have signed on to this letter, along with many other colleagues in the field (including @guttmacher.org researchers @cbpolis.bsky.social , @megankavanaugh.bsky.social, Kathryn Kost, Rachel Jones, Ann Moore and Beth Sully)
uclarepropolicy.bsky.social UCLA Law Center on Repro Health, Law, & Policy @uclarepropolicy.bsky.social · Aug 27
Today we and our colleagues at @‪ansirh.bsky.social‬ submitted a letter to the FDA for over 260 researchers affirming the 25-year safety record of mifepristone and urging the FDA not to restrict abortion pill access based on junk science. Read the letter here: law.ucla.edu/sites/defaul...
August 27, 2025 at 5:53 PM
Reposted by Isaac Maddow-Zimet
lauralindberg.bsky.social
Check out our new brief @ccfamilies.bsky.social on the limitations of population projections for understanding future fertility patterns. The growing public discourse on declining fertility needs demographers voices and expertise, while recognizing the limits of our methods.
August 20, 2025 at 9:50 PM
Reposted by Isaac Maddow-Zimet
amandajean.bsky.social
Are we doomed to a demographic destiny of decline because ladies aren't having babies? No.

We've been here before. It turns out that population projections only describe one of many possible futures. Our actual future is still to be written.
philipncohen.com Philip N Cohen @philipncohen.com · Aug 20
From @amandajean.bsky.social and @ccfamilies.bsky.social : "Don’t Panic: Population Projection is Not a Crystal Ball"
graph of historical population projections from 1946 showing they were all too low
August 20, 2025 at 4:19 PM
Reposted by Isaac Maddow-Zimet
karenguzzo.bsky.social
Feeling alarmed over dire long-term population projections that suggest humanity will disappear? Don't be!

Demographers generally aren't worried, and you shouldn't be either. @amandajean.bsky.social explains why in this great @ccfamilies.bsky.social brief.

sites.utexas.edu/contemporary...
Don’t Panic: Population Projection is Not a Crystal Ball August 20th, 2025 Population panic – worries about “depopulation” linked to low birth rates – has become pervasive, with dire predictions in both the short and long term. Yet demographers like us – experts who explicitly study population size, composition, and structure – are generally not highly concerned. Why is this? It’s because we understand the strengths and limitations of population projections. Projections can accurately describe how populations will change if we know future birth, death, and migration rates. But demographers are well aware that they don’t have a crystal ball – we can’t fully anticipate economic shifts, political changes, global events, or how future generations will respond to their changing worlds. That’s why the farther we project from the present, the less accurate those projections are likely to be.
August 20, 2025 at 3:02 PM
imaddowzimet.bsky.social
Really enjoyed talking to Lizzy McNeill on the BBC More or Less podcast about trends in abortion provision post Dobbs (along with @ushma.bsky.social !) podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a...
Are abortion numbers rising in the US?
Podcast Episode · More or Less: Behind the Stats · 08/06/2025 · 9m
podcasts.apple.com
August 6, 2025 at 2:29 PM
Reposted by Isaac Maddow-Zimet
karenguzzo.bsky.social
Want to know why demographers aren't panicking over low birth rates? @lesja.bsky.social, @shelleydclark.bsky.social, & I have a new piece in @theconversation.com explaining the faulty logic that underlies the low birth rate-induced population panic than fuels the pronatalism movement. 1/n
Fears that falling birth rates in US could lead to population collapse are based on faulty assumptions
While the changes in population structure that accompany low birth rates are real, the impact of these changes has been dramatically overstated.
theconversation.com
July 25, 2025 at 1:06 PM
imaddowzimet.bsky.social
This is such a great thoughtful and nuanced post by @rmcelreath.bsky.social on open science/computational reproducibility - especially on the need to make research and code *intelligible*, not just transparent.
elevanth.org/blog/2025/07...
Comprehensibility of research. This is not transparency nor openness. What I mean is research has sufficient documentation and justification to reduce error and empower others to make up their own minds about its value. Research should be intelligible. Access is not sufficient. Research can be replicable without being reasonable or correct. Materials and data can be open without being intelligible, and they can be partly closed while still being comprehensible. The rise of AI reinforces the need for comprehensibility, because “I asked the chatbot” is not comprehensible. But for sure AI will be a part of scientific workflow now and into the future. But the researcher must be responsible, not the bot.
July 9, 2025 at 5:12 PM
Reposted by Isaac Maddow-Zimet
karenguzzo.bsky.social
Journalists often ask for my thoughts on the contemporary US pronatalist movement. My assessment is based on my expertise and training as a social demographer, and my own research on childbearing behaviors at the individual and aggregate levels.

Strap in, b/c I've got a lot to say. 1/
a woman says let 's get into it with a pinkvilla logo in the background
ALT: a woman says let 's get into it with a pinkvilla logo in the background
media.tenor.com
July 2, 2025 at 5:20 PM
Reposted by Isaac Maddow-Zimet
danamartha.bsky.social
As mifepristone continues to be threatened (read: RFK Jr's baseless/insane claims about safety) more folks are considering the role of misoprostol-only medication abortion regimens in the US

Well happy Monday folks because I have *two* new studies out for you: (1/4)
June 30, 2025 at 3:31 PM
Reposted by Isaac Maddow-Zimet
pengzell.bsky.social
Being a social scientist means holding two truths at once: 1. This is all deeply complicated 2. I have to submit something by Tuesday
June 28, 2025 at 10:29 AM
Reposted by Isaac Maddow-Zimet
danamartha.bsky.social
New: SCOTUS *allows* states to defund Planned Parenthood, holding that Medicaid does not give patients a right to obtain care from its providers.

Back in April Terri-Ann and I wrote about the public health implications of this ruling - and trust us…they are major

thehill.com/opinion/5235...
thehill.com
June 26, 2025 at 3:58 PM
Reposted by Isaac Maddow-Zimet
washingtonpost.com
More than 150,000 people traveled out of state to get an abortion last year, nearly one-fifth of whom coming from Texas alone — and new numbers paint a picture of how far they went to receive care.

It’s been three years since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. wapo.st/3TCXhxF
Protestors holding signs advocating for abortion rights in front of the United States Capitol building at dusk. The text reads, “Three years ago, Toe v. Wade was overturned. More than 1 in 7 abortion patients travel to other states, a recent study found.” Photo by Annie Mulligan for The Washington Post. A map of the United States showing the legal status of abortion by state. States are color-coded: red indicates a ban on all or most abortions, dark grey signifies a ban on abortions after 12 or 15 weeks, light grey indicates the ban is blocked by courts, and white means abortions are legal.
June 25, 2025 at 12:01 AM
Reposted by Isaac Maddow-Zimet
emmas-e.bsky.social
Everyone deserves access to abortion care in their communities via their preferred method, whether that is an in clinic procedure, via telemedicine, or abortion pills sourced form a community network. Any restrictions that limit people's choices are unjust. Full stop.
June 24, 2025 at 3:38 PM
Reposted by Isaac Maddow-Zimet
lesja.bsky.social
Just looking at the map (article is paywalled, unfortunately): God bless Carbondale, and all of southern Illinois
June 24, 2025 at 3:32 PM
imaddowzimet.bsky.social
And as #WeCount and others have documented - the increased availability of telehealth through shield law providers is likely playing a big role here as well: helping many people access abortion care who would have otherwise traveled very far distances or not been able to access care at all.
imaddowzimet.bsky.social Isaac Maddow-Zimet @imaddowzimet.bsky.social · Jun 24
Florida's ban had ripple effects across the Southeast because in 2023 it was one of the few places where people could access in-clinic care after six weeks. In 2023, more than 1,800 Louisianans had abortions in Florida; in 2024, fewer than 500 did (and most before the ban went in effect in May).
June 24, 2025 at 3:29 PM
imaddowzimet.bsky.social
Three years post Dobbs, enormously high numbers of people are still crossing state lines to access abortion care: the Monthly Provision Study just released new data on where they are coming from and where they are going. www.cnn.com/2025/06/24/h...
Tens of thousands of women traveled for abortion care again last year as state policies continue to shift | CNN
More than 1 in 7 people who had an abortion in the United States last year crossed state lines to do so, according to new estimates from the Guttmacher Institute, a research and policy organization fo...
www.cnn.com
June 24, 2025 at 3:23 PM
imaddowzimet.bsky.social
@doctorshelleysella.bsky.social's book is probably one of the best things I've read in the past decade.
doctorshelleysella.bsky.social Dr. Shelley Sella | #BookSky @doctorshelleysella.bsky.social · Jun 3
It’s pub day!! I am so proud to eelease Beyond Limits out into the world so that we can ALL understand that empathy has no limits! 🧡

Released by, and in partnership with, @beaconpress.bsky.social Available today wherever books are sold 😭🙏
Graphic showing the book “Beyond Limits: Stories of Third Trimester Abortion Care” with a headshot of Dr Shelley Sella smiling. Text: On Sale June 3rd!
June 10, 2025 at 1:55 PM
imaddowzimet.bsky.social
I saw my city council member biking across the bridge in the other direction from me on my way back from work today and I truly have never been so excited by a celebrity sighting
June 9, 2025 at 10:57 PM
Reposted by Isaac Maddow-Zimet
jasminabdelghany.bsky.social
The Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) Program was central in improving the evidence base for health policies and interventions, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa and Central & Southern Asia - figure by @aasli.bsky.social.
Our preprint on the termination of the DHS Program: osf.io/preprints/so...
May 26, 2025 at 5:37 PM
imaddowzimet.bsky.social
Really useful primer, and also includes this major contribution to the literature
April 23, 2025 at 4:12 PM
Reposted by Isaac Maddow-Zimet
lauralindberg.bsky.social
Why don’t young people use prescription contraception? Our new national MyVoice study asked 14–24-year-olds directly. The top 3 reasons:
🔸 Concern about side effects
🔸 Fear of judgment
🔸 Difficulty accessing care
www.jpagonline.org/article/S108...
April 21, 2025 at 7:46 PM
Reposted by Isaac Maddow-Zimet
lauralindberg.bsky.social
I talked with @propublica.org while I was at #PAA2025 about attacks on federal data and said "Burying your head in the sand is not going to be a way to keep the country healthy." www.propublica.org/article/trum...
Trump’s War on Measurement Means Losing Data on Drug Use, Maternal Mortality, Climate Change and More
By slashing teams that gather critical data, the administration has left the federal government with no way of understanding if policies are working — and created a black hole of information whose con...
www.propublica.org
April 18, 2025 at 2:29 PM
imaddowzimet.bsky.social
Also: I also want to shout out our fielding team, who (among many other things) do all of the data collection for the study -- really excellent, careful, data collection is one of those aspects of research that is often underemphasized, and I'm incredibly lucky to work with such a great team.
imaddowzimet.bsky.social Isaac Maddow-Zimet @imaddowzimet.bsky.social · Apr 16
Finally, I want to express my huge gratitude to staff at abortion-providing facilities and organizations who supplied data to this study—for their participation in this work, as well as for the care they provide to patients every day. We wouldn't be able to do any of this research without them.
April 16, 2025 at 6:25 PM
imaddowzimet.bsky.social
Yesterday, we released new estimates (for 2024) of the number of people obtaining abortions in states without total bans & the number of people traveling across state lines to access care
www.guttmacher.org/report/stabi...
Stability in the Number of Abortions from 2023 to 2024 in US States Without Total Bans Masks Major Shifts in Access
www.guttmacher.org
April 16, 2025 at 6:20 PM