A examine finds sharp drops in prescriptions for contraception and emergency contraception in states like Texas that carried out extremely restrictive bans after the Supreme Court docket upended abortion rights.
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Analysis out at present finds that states with extremely restrictive abortion bans have additionally seen sharp declines in prescriptions for contraception and emergency contraception. NPR’s Elissa Nadworny covers reproductive rights and joins us now. Hello, Elissa.
ELISSA NADWORNY, BYLINE: Whats up.
CHANG: OK, so inform us extra about this examine. Like, what did the researchers discover precisely?
NADWORNY: Nicely, they checked out prescriptions in states that carried out strict bans after the Supreme Court docket overturned the fitting to an abortion in 2022, and so they in contrast them with states that had extra reasonable bans or the place the legal guidelines did not change in any respect, and so they did this over a few 15-month interval.
They discovered that in states like Texas and Alabama, locations with strict bans – that they had these large declines. So in Texas, for instance, prescription fills for contraception drugs declined by practically a 3rd. Drugs for emergency contraceptives, together with issues like Plan B, dropped by practically half.
CHANG: Wow.
NADWORNY: Dima Qato, a professor on the College of Southern California, was the lead researcher on the examine, which printed at present within the journal JAMA Community Open.
DIMA QATO: A variety of the main focus has been on abortion and the way Dobbs has impacted abortion. However we will not overlook that, you recognize, stopping being pregnant and contraception continues to be key.
CHANG: However why such large declines? Like, what is going on on right here, you assume?
NADWORNY: So Qato says the decline is probably going as a result of many household planning clinics with abortion providers – they closed after the bans. However these had been the identical clinics that supplied household planning and reproductive well being. That is the place individuals acquired these prescriptions.
The opposite purpose for the decline in prescriptions could also be simply confusion over what’s authorized. A examine final yr by the Kaiser Household Basis discovered greater than half of the ladies surveyed believed that Plan B was unlawful due to their state’s abortion ban. And that is even supposing the FDA got here out and stated, emergency contraception, together with Plan B – it prevents being pregnant. It doesn’t terminate it. The factor is, Ailsa, there’s a lot misinformation, it may be arduous for individuals to maintain observe.
CHANG: Yeah. Nicely, I do know that this spring, we noticed for the primary time that oral contraception was being made out there over-the-counter. Does that influence all of this, you assume?
NADWORNY: So it wasn’t included within the examine, however Qato says it is unlikely to have made a giant distinction contemplating that these choices are nonetheless actually costly and out of attain for low-income individuals. Take Opill, which is the FDA’s accepted contraception capsule that you could get over-the-counter. There is not any want for a prescription. It runs about $20 a month, however when you’ve got insurance coverage, even Medicaid, you will get prescription contraception lined free of charge, so it isn’t more likely to have a big effect.
CHANG: OK. So, Elissa, are you able to simply put these findings into context for us with regards to reproductive rights total? Like, why do these findings matter?
NADWORNY: In order that they present that there are large implications to Dobbs that transcend abortion. So contraception or emergency contraception is the primary approach individuals stop an unplanned or undesirable being pregnant. Lauren Ralph – she’s a professor on the College of California San Francisco not affiliated with the examine.
LAUREN RALPH: Particularly in a panorama the place entry to abortion has grow to be more and more tough, we ought to be actually making an attempt to enhance entry to contraception to assist assist individuals in having pregnancies once they wish to.
NADWORNY: So there isn’t any proof but about this, however each Ralph and Qato say they’ll be watching to see if these drops in prescriptions are going to have an effect on being pregnant and dwell start charges.
CHANG: That’s NPR’s Elissa Nadworny. Thanks a lot, Elissa.
NADWORNY: You guess.
Copyright © 2024 NPR. All rights reserved. Go to our web site phrases of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for additional info.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This textual content might not be in its closing type and could also be up to date or revised sooner or later. Accuracy and availability could differ. The authoritative report of NPR’s programming is the audio report.
