Education
MPH Epidemiology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (2006)
Residency OBGYN, Los Angeles County, University of Southern California (2000-2004)
MD University of California, San Francisco (2000)
BA Anthropology, University of Chicago (1991)
Background
Mishka Terplan is a physician whose clinical, research, public health, and advocacy interests lie along the intersections of reproductive and behavioral health. He has a long-standing interest in how drugs and drug use is framed in society, and as a medical student, helped to set up and run a volunteer medical clinic that ran concurrent with a syringe exchange and a Saturday morning clinic that served only women, primarily street-based sex workers and exotic dancers. He did not anticipate becoming an obstetrician gynecologist. Raised in and privileged by the patriarchy he had tacitly accepted the devalue of the health of women and other people capable of pregnancy. He was, however, drawn to the lifecourse perspective and especially, the sacred specialness of birth.
Initially his career focused on exploring the intersections between substance use and addiction (for example, embedding reproductive health in syringe exchange and drug treatment, or integrating SBIRT into abortion care) and today is recognized as an expert in the care of pregnant and parenting people who use drugs. He first learned about the family policing system from his patients by following them from clinic into court and has spent the last 20 years partnering with community-based organization and legal aid groups to stand for the human rights and human dignity of all parents, especially those that use drugs. Recently, his work has focused on naming and resisting the increasing carceral complicity of health care at birth. Doing Right By Birth is the logical consequence of all his prior work, and together with Dr. Taylor, he hopes to carve and hold space along the interstices of medicine, law, and life to support the dyad and the community so that all families might thrive.