Researchers found a jump in the number of permanent contraception operations for young adults after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs ruling in June 2022. The increase in sterilization of female patients eclipsed the rate of procedures performed on men. (Rachel Mipro/Kansas Reflector)
More young Americans sought sterilization procedures after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade — with twice as many women as men seeking them, according to a study published this month in JAMA Health Forum.
Researchers examined data from medical centers and clinics, comparing spans of time from before the pivotal court decision to afterward. For younger adults overall, the rate jumped abruptly in the months after the ruling, they wrote.
And the statistical analysis showed that rates of sterilization among women aged 18 to 30 were higher than rates among men in the same age range after the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision.
Tubal ligation among women increased at a rate of 58 procedures per 100,000 visits post-Dobbs, while vasectomies among men increased at a rate of 27.
In recent years, reproductive health care workers in several states with abortion restrictions, including Arizona, Indiana and Oklahoma, have said there’s been more demand for vasectomies. But there have been fewer reports of a surge in women choosing tubal ligation — also commonly known as getting one’s tubes tied.
Jacqueline Ellison, the study’s lead author and a public health professor at the University of Pittsburgh, said she wasn’t surprised by the gender inequity in the findings.
“Women are primarily responsible for controlling fertility,” Ellison said. “They are also more likely to experience the consequences of not being able to access abortion.”
Concern is growing about access to contraception alongside fears that it will be restricted down the road, Ellison said. Lawmakers in several states that restrict abortion — Alabama, Arizona and Louisiana, for example — have introduced legislation that would secure the right to birth control. The researchers weren’t able to determine where the sterilization procedures were occurring or break down the information by demographic because of the methodology they used.
The main takeaway of the study is that “in the short term, we need to ensure access to affordable, person-centered contraceptive care,” Ellison said, “but we also need to realize that access to contraception is not a solution to abortion restrictions.”
