‘Permanent contraception procedures’ soared after Dobbs decision: Research

The percentage of people seeking permanent birth control skyrocketed after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade in 2022, according to a new study.

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and Boston University used the TriNetX platform to examine rates of tubal ligation and vasectomy among 18- to 30-year-olds from 2019 to 2022, and to estimate rates from 2022 to 2023. We compared.

The platform primarily collects data from academic medical centers and affiliated clinics across the country.

The findings were published on Friday. JAMA Health Forward Research letter.

The researchers found that before the Supreme Court’s decision, tubal ligations increased by 2.84 per 100,000 per month for women and by 1.03 per 100,000 per month for men.

According to the letter, after the decision, researchers found that the number of tubal ligations for female patients tended to increase to 5.3 per month, while the number of procedures performed per month for men did not change significantly.

In addition to this, the researchers found that the average rate of women undergoing tubal ligation after Dobbs surgery increased to approximately 58 per 100,000 visits, and the average rate of men increased to approximately 27 per 100,000 visits. I discovered that.

However, the study did not provide average rates for these procedures before the Dobbs decision. The Hill has reached out to the author for more information.

The disparity reflects “the unequal burden of unintended pregnancies,” said Jacqueline Ellison, assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health and lead author of the letter.

Since the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade in 2022, 21 states have banned or increased restrictions on abortion access.

“What we’re seeing reflects increased fear and anxiety among young people about having their access to abortion restricted since Dobbs,” Ellison said of his research. Ta.

“These changes in permanent contraceptive rates are critical to understand because they show how abortion bans affect people’s reproductive autonomy beyond access to abortion.”

Most people who undergo sterilization are happy with their decision, but a few regret it later in life.

According to the report, about 5 percent of men who have a vasectomy regret their decision in the future. U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

There is no clear consensus on how many women regret their choice of permanent contraception. The CDC estimates that between 1 and 26 percent of women who choose sterilization regret their decision, and younger women are more likely to have second thoughts than older women.

One 1999 study Researchers found that about 20 percent of women who choose to be sterilized before age 30 regret that decision, compared to about 6 percent of women who undergo sterilization after age 30. I discovered that.