Sophomore Publishes Research Article in Global Journal of Health Science

Sophomore Haiqi Li '21 has published an article titled “Crisis Pregnancy Centers in Canada and Reproductive Justice Organizations’ Responses” in the Global Journal of Health Science, published by the Canadian Center of Science and Education. In it, Haiqi explores the presence of crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) — non-profit organizations meant to provide resources related to pregnancy, abortion, and childbirth, typically with an anti-abortion agenda — in the United States and Canada.

In the abstract to the article, Haiqi explains how the paper “first reviews the status quo of U.S. and Canadian CPCs through the existing literature to contextualize my investigation. Then it explores the establishment of individual Canadian CPCs to evaluate whether they are gaining more influence. It also analyzes the presence and absence of information on Canadian anti-CPC activism in the social media of RJ [reproductive justice] organizations. Finally, it examines the interviews I conducted with Canadian RJ activists to identify the ongoing anti-CPC activism and why some groups do not regard it central to their agenda.”

Haiqi says he has a strong passion for issues of feminism and women’s rights, and after engaging in educational programming in his home country of China, decided that he wanted to delve more deeply into a topic of interest. He found that there were very few articles written about CPCs in the United States, and even less in Canada, where there are no legal restrictions on abortion. Still, Haiqi has observed that the numbers of CPCs in Canada is on the rise, with consistent sources of funding coming in from anti-abortion special interest groups. In his research, Haiqi studied current activism efforts against the spread of CPCs, and found that “most Canadian reproductive justice groups do not focus their activism on CPCs and instead, concern themselves more with such issues as abortion access owing to their political engagement restriction.”

Haiqi says he really enjoyed conducting this research — which he completed over the course of this past summer — and is excited to see his work published. He is grateful to be a part of a community like CSW, where issues of this nature are openly discussed and explored, and he looks forward to taking more courses related to the topics of women’s and gender studies as he continues on in his CSW career.


The Cambridge School of Weston is a progressive high school for day and boarding students in grades 9–12 and PG. CSW's mission is to provide a progressive education that emphasizes deep learning, meaningful relationships, and a dynamic program that inspires students to discover who they are and what their contribution is to their school, their community and the world.