On June 24, 2022, the US Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs against Jackson Women Health Organization eliminated nearly 50-year constitutional right to abortion and returned the powers to regulate abortion in countries.
The Dobbs decision, which canceled ROE against Wade, has significantly changed the national abortion landscape. Three years on, many countries have seriously limited access to abortion care. But the solution also has a less well-recognized result: it is increasingly threatening to access contraception.
We are a scientist from a doctor and sociologist and researcher of health care studying healthcare and women’s policy, including access to contraception. We see an alarming situation.
Even while increasing abortion restrictions in the US increase the need for effective contraception, family planning providers are less accessible in many states, and health insurance of some of the most effective types of contraception is at risk.
Increasing demand for contraception
Abortion restrictions are distributed throughout the country following the Dobbs decision. As of June 2025, 12 countries have prohibited abortions in almost total abortions and 10 countries prohibit abortions before 23 or 24 weeks of gestation, which is when the fetus is usually considered viable. Of other countries, 19 limit abortions after viability and nine states and Washington have no gestational boundaries.
It is no surprise that women living in countries, that ban or severely restrict abortions, can be particularly motivated to avoid unwanted pregnancy. Even planned pregnancies have become more risky, with healthcare providers afraid of legitimate consequences for the treatment of pregnancy-related medical emergencies, such as miscarriages. Such anxiety can partly explain emerging studies that suggest the use of long-acting contraception, such as intrauterine devices, or IUD and constant contraception-precisely sterilization-grows.
A national survey conducted in 2024 asked for women aged 18 to 49 if they had changed their contraception practices “as a result of the Supreme Court by canceling ROE against Wade.” He finds that nearly 1 in 5 women begin to use contraception for the first time, switch to a more effective method of contraceptive, received a sterilization procedure or purchased emergency contraception to maintain themselves.
A study in hospitals in Ohio found a nearly 16% increase in women who choose methods of contraception with prolonged activity or sterilization in the six months after the Dobbs decision and a 33% jump in men receiving vasectomy. Another study that examines both female and male sterilization in academic medical centers across the country also reported a step in sterilization procedures for young adults aged 18 to 30 years after the DOBBS decision by 2023.
Loss of contraception suppliers
Ironically, banning or severely restricting abortions across the country may also reduce contraception capacity.
To date, there is no convincing evidence that Ob-Gyn doctors leave the countries with strict abortion laws in a considerable number. One study found that conditions with severe abortion restrictions reported an 4.2% reduction in such practitioners compared to conditions without abortion restrictions.
However, the Association of American Medical Colleges announces that it is reducing applications for training programs for residences located in countries that have prohibitions for abortions-not only for OB-Gyn training programs, but also for training all specialties. This decline suggests that doctors may be less likely to train in countries that limit medical practice. And given that doctors often continue to practice in the United States in which they conduct their studies, this may indicate a long -term decline in doctors in these countries.
But the most significant decline in contraceptive services probably comes from the clinics clinics in countries with the most restrictive abortion policies. This is because such clinics usually provide a wide range of reproductive services, including contraception. The 12 states with close to total abortion bans had 57 abortion clinics in 2020, all of which were closed as of March 2024. A study reported a 4.1% drop in oral contraceptives released in these countries.
Threatening
The Dobbs solution also encouraged the constant efforts to incorrectly redefine some of the most effective contraceptives such as drugs that cause abortion. These efforts are aimed at emergency contraceptive pills known as Plan B without a prescription and fir by recipe, as well as certain IUD. Emergency contraceptive pills are up to 98% effective for preventing pregnancy after unprotected sex, and Iuds is 99% effective.
No method stops pregnancy, which by definition begins when the fertilized egg implants in the uterus. Instead, emergency contraceptive pills prevent the egg from released from the ovaries, while Iud, depending on the type, preventing the sperm of the egg or preventing the implantation of an egg in the uterus.
Connection of contraception and abortion spreads misinformation and causes confusion. People who believe that certain types of contraception cause abortions can be discouraged by the use of these methods and rely on less effective methods. Moreover, this can affect the health insurance coverage.
Medicaid, which provides health insurance for children and adults with low -incomes, is obliged to cover family planning services without patients for patients since 1972. Since 2012, the Affordable Care Act requires private health insurers to cover certain health services for patients and without patients, including the complete scope of the contraceptives and medicines.
According to our survey, the insurance coverage required by the Act on Accessible Care Act has increased IUDS, which can be extremely expensive when paid off from your pocket. But if Iuds and emergency contraceptive pills were reclassified as an abortion interventions, they would probably not be covered by Medicaid or the affordable care law, since no type of health insurance requires an abortion care. Thus, access to some of the most effective methods of contraceptives may be endangered at a time when the right to terminate unwanted or non -vital pregnancy has been canceled back in much of the country.
In fact, Project 2025, the Conservative Policy Program, which the Trump Administration seems to be followed, specifically calls for the removal of firms from the Law on the Contraception of the Act on affordable care as it is “potential aborting”. And politicians in many countries have expressed support for the idea of limiting these contraceptive methods, as well as in the broader contraception.
On the third anniversary of the DOBBS decision, it is clear that its pulsation effects include threats to contraception. Given that the use of contraception is almost universal among women in their reproductive years, in our opinion these threats should be taken seriously.
This article is reissued by the conversation, a non -profit, independent news organization that brings you facts and a reliable analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It is written by: Cynthia H. Chuang, Penn State and Carol S. Weisman, Penn State
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Cynthia H. Chuang receives funding from the Agency for the Research and Quality of Health.
Carol S. Weisman does not work, consults, holds shares or receives funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article and does not reveal a corresponding connection beyond their academic appointment.