Well, duh!

Virginia Langmaid, CNN
07/06/2022

In the days since the U.S. Supreme Court issued its ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization and overturned Roe v. Wade, reproductive health care has needed to operate in a new landscape.

Doctors and prescribers are now seeing an increase in demand for different forms of contraception, including emergency contraception and longer-lasting forms of birth control.

Some national pharmacy chains imposed limits on purchases of emergency contraception, even temporarily.

Nurx, an online pharmaceutical company that prescribes birth control along with other medications, saw increases in demand for emergency contraception after the leak of the Dobbs opinion in May as well as after the decision came down in June.

"When that decision was leaked, we saw a massive demand for emergency contraception. We saw a 300% increase in prescriptions being asked for and by our patients," said Kelly Gardiner, vice president of communications with Thirty Madison, Nurx's parent company.

The company then saw a "huge surge" in demand after the decision was final.

"We saw a 10 [times] surge for prescription-only Ella, and even though demand has leveled out right now, what we're starting to see is birth control requests are [three to four] times higher than usual," Gardiner said.

Ella is an emergency contraceptive pill that can be taken up to five days after sex. Emergency contraceptives work by delaying ovulation or preventing implantation and cannot terminate a pregnancy.

More people were also buying multiple forms of birth control. According to Gardiner, before the decision was released, about 30% of Nurx customers who had traditional birth control prescriptions would add Ella to their order. After the decision, that number rose to 60%.

"We're seeing people who used to just kind of use their birth control regularly, really want that added protection," she said.

For health care providers, the Supreme Court decision has brought more questions and concerns from patients.

"I am definitely seeing people who are saying, you know, 'My IUD expires in a year. Should I get a new one? That way if I can't access it, I've got coverage for another five years,'" said Dr. Jennifer Lincoln, a board-certified ob-gyn in Portland, Oregon, and a fellow with the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology. "Or 'I'm not sure if I'm done having kids, but should I get a tubal [ligation] just in case? Because I don't know what to do.' "

A tubal ligation is a permanent surgical sterilization procedure. Although Lincoln said it's a procedure OB-GYNs are "happy to provide," it does require some consideration.

"We don't want people to just feel rushed into it and be like 80% sure, and so then they're going to regret it. So we don't want to perform surgeries on people who are conflicted. And so that's another another bump in the road."

Dr. Meera Shah, chief medical officer of Planned Parenthood Hudson Peconic in New York, said she's seen more interest in vasectomies, as well.

"We've had an increase in number of calls to our health center of patients requesting vasectomies because of the decision," she said.