Selena Simmons-Duffin
Selena Simmons-Duffin reports on health policy for NPR.
Simmons-Duffin joined the Science Desk in 2019, just a few months before COVID-19 was discovered. During the pandemic, she covered CDC and the vaccine rollout, and ran a year-long project surveying state health departments on contact tracing. In 2022, after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, she launched a project called Days & Weeks exploring how abortion bans are changing people's lives.
Before becoming a reporter, Simmons-Duffin worked for 10 years as a producer and editor for NPR's flagship programs, Morning Edition and All Things Considered. In 2014, she drove the full length of the U.S.-Mexico border with host Steve Inskeep for the "Borderland" series.
She won a Gracie Award in 2015 for a video called "Talking While Female," and a 2014 AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Award for producing a series on why you should love your microbes.
Simmons-Duffin is a graduate of Stanford University, where she studied English. She took six months off from college to do HIV/AIDS-related work in East Africa. She started out in radio at Stanford's radio station, KZSU, and went on to study documentary radio at the Salt Institute, before coming to NPR as an intern in 2009.
She can be reached via encrypted message at selena.02 on Signal.
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Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appeared before the Senate Finance Committee and the Senate HELP Committee Wednesday to answer questions about measles, vaccines, nutrition and budget cuts.
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Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. faced tough questioning as he caps off seven hearings on the Hill in as many days. It's the first time he has testified before Congress since September. -
The teen birth rate continues its decades-long downward trend. Researchers say many factors are at play, including less sexual activity and more access to contraception and abortion. -
The abortion pill mifepristone must undergo a safety review by the FDA, the judge said. Louisiana's case seeking to ban its use through telemedicine will proceed after that review. -
A paper in JAMA Internal Medicine adds to the growing scientific evidence that medication abortion pills would be safe to sell over-the-counter at the pharmacy. But political opposition means that possibility may not happen anytime soon. -
An end to birthright citizenship would mean a new layer of bureaucracy for all babies born in the U.S. and could cause delays for health insurance and other benefits. -
A new report shows the number of abortions has held steady in recent years despite efforts to limit access.
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The Guttmacher Institute has a new analysis on how many abortions happened in 2025. -
A self-employed couple already had to dip into retirement savings for health costs. Now, they are skipping vacations and canceling streaming to afford health insurance. -
Title X is a 56-year-old federal grant program that supports thousands of clinics that provide birth control and STI testing and treatment. Those clinics could face a funding gap because of a Trump administration delay.
