Our People
The Team
Jayne Kavanagh
Co Director
Jayne Kavanagh is an Associate Professor (Teaching) at UCL Medical School and a sexual and reproductive health specialty doctor in London. She is clinical education lead of the RCOG’s Making Abortion Safe programme and co-chairs Doctors for Choice UK
Jane Calvert
Talkline trainer & Workshop facilitator
Jane has been involved in abortion care for the last 35 years. She has worked with the Family Planning Association, MSI Reproductive Choices and also BPAS in client care for the past 29 years. During this time she has ‘talked abortion’ in many different environments and would definitely be described as an ‘abortion nerd’!
Jane advocates for abortion to be delivered in a way that is kind, compassionate, respectful and is able to maintain the dignity and integrity of everyone involved.
Kim Newman
Talkline Rota Coordinator
Kim qualified as a Midwife from King’s College in London in 2015. She has worked in the NHS, for MSI Reproductive Choices and in the fertility sector. She currently works for the HFEA, the UK’s fertility regulator, managing requests for information from donors, donor-conceived individuals and their parents. She also volunteers on the Abortion Talk Talkline and is passionate about supporting people through their decisions about a pregnancy.
Lesley Hoggart
Co Director
Lesley Hoggart is a Professor of Social Policy Research at the Open University. Her main areas of research are focused on reproductive health; abortion policy and politics; abortion stigma and contraception. She is committed to research that makes a difference and tries to translate research findings into action. Lesley’s most recent academic work on understanding abortion stigma has resulted in the multi-media My Body My Life Travelling Exhibition and website.
Susie Corfield
Operations Manager
Susie has been an abortion advocate for over 20 years, including time spent serving on the boards of Abortion Rights and Abortion Support Network. As part of her own efforts to destigmatise abortion she has taken part in many press and broacast interviews about her experience of accessing abortion.
Susie has previously worked in leadership roles in UK charities with a particular focus on volunteers, learning and development and partnership management.
Trustees
Chowa Nkonde
Junior Doctor
Chowa is a junior doctor based in London with a strong interest in Sexual Health and HIV Medicine. She has been actively involved in Sexual Health Education as part of Doctors for Choice UK, regularly teaching medical students about FGM, contraception and abortion care. Chowa has a particular interest in protecting and destigmatising conversation surrounding reproductive rights by improving sexual and reproductive health education.
Jane Fisher
Chief Executive, ARC
Jane Fisher has been Chief Executive of the charity Antenatal Results and Choices (ARC) since 2004. ARC provides impartial information and support to parents throughout antenatal screening and its consequences and works in partnership with healthcare professionals to help promote high-quality care. As well as managing the charity, Jane is also involved in directly supporting parents, training health professionals, research, policy and media work. She has a particular interest in women’s experience of termination for fetal anomaly.
Sally Gimson (Secretary)
Consultant
Sally is a policy, campaigns and communications consultant who lives in London. She was a councillor in a leading London borough for seven years and had responsibility for public health. She has also worked at a senior level in the voluntary sector. She started her career as a journalist for national Sunday newspapers.
Wendy Savage
Co-chair, Doctors for Choice
Wendy is a Retired Senior Lecturer and Honorary Consultant at The Royal London Hospital, and Honorary Professor at Middlesex University's Department of Health and Education.
She was Press Officer and Co-ordinator of Doctors for a Woman’s Choice on Abortion (DWCA) from 1977-2017 and now Co-chair of Doctors for Choice UK (DfC), President of Keep Our NHS Public, BMA Council member and Public Governor, Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust.
Hayley Webb (Treasurer)
GP
Hayley Webb is a GP based in London, who also works as a doctor for the Havens, a specialist centre providing care to victims of rape and sexual assault. She has experience working in abortion care, contraception and sexual health across a variety of settings.
Hayley is the Secretary of Doctors for Choice UK and is also involved in delivering teaching on abortion care to medical students at UCLH.
Hayley’s interest in reproductive healthcare is led by her strong feminist values and she is a passionate advocate for women's reproductive rights.
Laura Russell (Chair)
Head of Professional and Policy Committees, BMA
Laura has a background in policy and research and currently works for the British Medical Association, the registered trade union for doctors in the UK. Before joining the BMA, she led the policy, campaigns and research teams at Stonewall (the LGBTQ+ campaigning charity) and at the sexual and reproductive health and rights charity FPA.
Samuel Yosef
Researcher and Doctoral Student, KCL
Sam is a Doctoral Student at the Cultural Competency Unit of King’s College London (KCL). His PhD project is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and it’s focused on understanding and addressing the influence of colonialism on postgraduate specialty training in Obstetrics and Gynaecology in the UK. Sam works as the Administrator for the British Society of Abortion Care Providers (BSACP) and has previously worked in project management and education roles for the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare (FSRH) and the General Medical Council (GMC).
Zoe Macalpine
Director of Fundraising and Communications,
World Child Cancer
Zoe has over twenty years of fundraising experience and is currently Director of Fundraising and Communications at World Child Cancer. She has previously been Global Head of Fundraising at ActionAid International, Head of Major Gifts and Special Events at Terrence Higgins Trust and held fundraising roles at Mothers2Mothers, Marie Curie, Bloodwise and ActionAid UK. She lives in north London with her two children.
Advisory Group
Christina Boateng
Assistant Coordinator, International Campaign for Women's Right to Safe Abortion
Currently a Masters student in Human Rights, Christina has been directly involved in abortion rights since 2017. Her work has involved supporting the coordination of International Safe Abortion Day and participating in international meetings with other abortion-rights activists. She also has experience working with migrants and refugees in the UK.
Fiona Bloomer
Academic, Ulster University
Fiona Bloomer is Senior Lecturer in Social Policy, in the School of Applied Social and Policy Sciences at Ulster University. She has written extensively on abortion policy, has published in international journals and is co-author of the book Reimagining Global Abortion Politics.
Joe Strong
Researcher and PhD Candidate, LSE
Joe's current research focuses on the relationship between men, masculinities, and sexual and reproductive health in Ghana, with a specific focus on abortion-related care. More broadly, he explores the roles of structural inequalities on access to abortion care and has worked on numerous abortion-related projects, including with the WHO, Ipas, and the Guttmacher Institute.
He co-convenes the Abortion Book Club with Dr Rishita Nandagiri – open to all!
Mara Clarke
Founder, Abortion Support Network (ASN)
ASN founder and Abortion Without Borders/Aborcja Bez Granic member Mara Clarke has a varied background with experience ranging from public relations to tech startups to abortion activism and waiting tables. She was an ASN volunteer for several years before having the honour of being ASN’s first paid staff person. Until the amazing groups campaigning for abortion law reform make ASN obsolete, she’ll continue to work towards a world where “I can’t afford to have an abortion” isn’t the only reason someone becomes a parent.
Rachel Mantock
Journalist & Digital Advocacy Content Manager
Rachel is a journalist whose work focuses on reproductive and women’s health, lifestyle and culture. She has a particular interest in creating content that advocates for further research and access to care for reproductive health issues disproportionately experienced by Black women, the abolition of stigma around sexuality, safe abortion, and safe SRHR spaces for LGBTQ groups and teens.
Sam Rowlands
Visiting Professor, Bournemouth University LLM MD FRCGP FFSRH
Sam is a Visiting Professor at the Department of Medical Sciences & Public Health, Bournemouth University. He is currently Secretary of the British Society of Abortion Care Providers. In the past, he has held office at the Faculty of Sexual & Reproductive Health and FIAPAC. Sam has been an expert witness to the civil courts in several jurisdictions for over 25 years. He has published widely on emergency contraception, LARC, abortion, sterilisation and medicolegal, human rights and ethical issues relating to sexual and reproductive health. He is the editor of ‘Abortion Care’ published in 2014.
Yvonne Neubauer
Associate Clinical Director, MSI Reproductive Choices UK
Abortion Care is Health Care! Yvonne is a Sexual and Reproductive Health Doctor who is passionate about delivering a high standard of evidence-based abortion care. She believes in a person's right to choose and supports individuals to make the best decision for themselves regarding their pregnancy options. She is keen on promoting discussions about abortion, in order to tackle stigma and address misinformation.
Carrie Purcell
Research Fellow, University of Glasgow
Carrie is a Research Fellow at the MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow. Most recently, Carrie led the Sexuality and Abortion Stigma Study, a Wellcome Trust-funded secondary analysis project looking at abortion across the UK’s different jurisdictions.
Carrie is a medical sociologist specialising in qualitative research, mixed-method process evaluation and implementation research. She has worked on a range of abortion-related projects over the last decade, including experiences of later (16+ weeks) abortion, more than one abortion, early medical abortion, and abortion during the Covid-19 pandemic. Carrie is a frequent contributor to policy and public debate around abortion in Scotland. Her work has been published in a range of journals including Sociology of Health & Illness, Feminism & Psychology, and BMJ SRH, and she is a member of the editorial board of BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.
Isadora Sinha
PhD Researcher, Cardiff University
Isadora is currently a PhD researcher at Cardiff University studying medicine. She is best known in the Cardiff student community for getting their students’ union to officially adopt a pro-choice stance in 2019, founding the CU Pro-Choice Society the same year. During 2019/20 she was also the Wellbeing Officer for CU Feminist Society; this year she was elected as Cardiff University’s Students’ Union’s Black and Minority Ethnic Officer and re-elected as President of the Pro-Choice Society. Isadora is on Abortion Rights UK’s Executive Committee, designing their social media infographics about telemedical abortion services and is student liaison for Abortion Rights Cardiff.
Lisa Hallgarten
Head of Policy and Public Affairs, Brook
Lisa Hallgarten is Head of Policy and Public Affairs at Brook. She advocates for young people’s rights to accessible sexual and reproductive health services; and champions inclusive, sex-positive Relationships and Sex Education.
Patricia A. Lohr
Medical Director and Director Centre for Reproductive Research & Communication, BPAS
Patricia is an obstetrician and gynaecologist who has devoted her career to ensuring that people can access evidence-based abortion care. This has included service design, direct abortion care, research, and contributions to textbooks and national and international clinical practice guidelines. She is passionate about abortion education and advises the RCOG on curricula, as well as developing and delivering training. She is a co-founder and Council member of British Society of Abortion Care Providers, and an advisory board member for the RCOG’s Making Abortion Safe programme.
Pollyanna Cohen
Doctor
Pollyanna is a junior doctor currently taking a year out of working clinically to complete an MSc in Science Communication. She works one day a week with the RCOG Making Abortion Safe team on their e-learning and also works occasional shifts in the emergency department at UCLH. From August, she'll be in a full-time training post in Academic Community Sexual and Reproductive Health based in London.
Upeka De Silva
Policy Officer, Compassion in Dying
Upeka has a passion for protecting individual autonomy and choice. She has thirteen years of experience in international sexual and reproductive health and rights programmes - from youth-friendly services to safe abortion and fistula care. Upeka has a special interest in projects that seek to address sensitive issues, challenge misconceptions and promote new thinking in relation to advancing reproductive choice. In keeping with her passion for promoting person-centred care, Upeka now works on supporting individuals to make informed choices about treatment and care at the end of life.