Heather Boonstra, Senior Public Policy Associate

Heather Boonstra is Senior Public Policy Associate in AGI’s Washington, DC office and is responsible for promoting the Institute’s sexual and reproductive health agenda in federal law and policy. Ms. Boonstra is a regular contributor to the Institute’s policy journal, The Guttmacher Report on Public Policy, and is currently analyzing the critical role of abortion in women’s lives, examining the integration of family planning and HIV services in the United States and internationally, and investigating HIV prevention among youth in Sub-Saharan Africa. Before joining AGI in 1999, Ms. Boonstra worked at Bass & Howes, Inc., where she managed a portfolio of client projects, including the Reproductive Health Technologies Project. She also worked as a consultant in international population and family planning with the Center for International Health and Information, Save the Children, Planned Parenthood of Connecticut, and the Pacific Institute for Women’s Health. Ms. Boonstra graduated summa cum laude from the University of Oregon and holds an M.A. in religion from Yale University, where she studied medical ethics.

Recent Publications Include:

Boonstra H, Condoms, Contraceptives and Nonoxynol-9: Complex Issues Obscured by Ideology, The Guttmacher Report on Public Policy, 2004, 8(2):4-6, 14.

Jones RK, Boonstra H. Confidential Reproductive Health Services for Minors: The Potential Impact of Mandated Parental Involvement for Contraception. Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health. 2004, 36:182-191.

Boonstra H, The Role of Reproductive Health Providers in Preventing HIV, The Guttmacher Report on Public Policy, 2004, 7(4):7-10.

Boonstra H, Comprehensive Approach Needed To Combat Sexually Transmitted Infections Among Youth. The Guttmacher Report on Public Policy, 2004, 7(1):3-4,13.

Boonstra H, U.S. AIDS Policy: Priority On Treatment, Conservatives' Approach to Prevention, The Guttmacher Report on Public Policy, 2003, 6(3):1-3.

Boonstra H, Critics Charge Bush Mix of Science and Politics Is Unprecedented and Dangerous, The Guttmacher Report on Public Policy, 2003, 6(2):1-2,14.

Boonstra H, Emergency Contraception: Steps Being Taken to Improve Access, The Guttmacher Report on Public Policy, 2002, 5(5):10-13.

Boonstra H, Gold RB. Overhauling Welfare: Implications for Reproductive Health Policy in the United States. Journal of the American Medical Women’s Association. 2002, 57:41-46.

Boonstra H, Duran V, Gamble VN, Blumenthal P, Dominguez L, Pies C. The “Boom and Bust Phenomenon”: The Hopes, Dreams, and Broken Promises of the Contraceptive Revolution. Contraception. 2000, 61:9-25.