Gretchen Sisson, PhD, is a sociologist who studies abortion and adoption in the United States. She is a researcher at Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health, part of the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco.

Her studies on adoption include hundreds of in-depth interviews with women who have relinquished infants for domestic adoption over the past 60 years, with a particular focus on women who have relinquished since Roe v. Wade.

Her research examining adoption decision-making after abortion denial (as part of The Turnaway Study) was cited in the Supreme Court’s dissent in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health from Justices Breyer, Kagan, and Sotomayor. In response to the oral arguments and decision in Dobbs, she authored pieces in the Washington Post, The Nation, and the Washington Post (again). Gretchen’s research has been featured on NPR’s All Things Considered and Consider This, as well as in New York Magazine, VOX, and other outlets.

Gretchen is represented by McKinnon Literary. She lives in San Francisco with her husband, three children, and their little free library. She is a native of Pennsylvania, and an alumna of Amherst College and Boston College.