Appointments for birth control consultations have shot up in Southwest Ohio in recent weeks.
“Definitely it’s related to the election,” said Maya McKenzie, communications manager for Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio.
After Donald Trump and JD Vance won the Presidential Election on Nov. 5, Planned Parenthood saw a surge of people seeing appointments, with most looking for long-acting birth control.
“As we started to see the results come in, we started to notice the change,” McKenzie said. “The first thing that alerted us to the increase in appointment requests was for long-acting birth control; I think it was a 31% increase. By Thursday, our appointment number in general booked out was doubled for the entire month.”
That same day, only two days after the election, the volume of patients seeking birth control overwhelmed Planned Parenthood’s online booking system.
“When we really started to realize a big change was happening was when we heard from other folks that the platform they used to book appointments was crashing because it couldn’t accommodate the amount of folks that were coming through,” McKenzie said. “By Thursday, we had it all ironed out and back running correctly, but, yeah, definitely was such high volume that it caused our service to crash momentarily.”
Nationally, the search is on for birth control options. In the days after the Trump-Vance win, Google search trends reveal a huge spike in IUD-related terms, or intrauterine device, a long-term birth control option. National online search trends show more Americans were Googling “Copper IUD” after the Trump-Vance win than when Roe v. Wade was overturned in June 2022.
McKenzie told CityBeat there’s a particular interest in the copper IUD known as Paragard, which lasts up to 10 years — longer than most other IUDs on the market.
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“Bottom line: People are looking for what will last them the longest because they’re just feeling really uncertain about what the future looks like,” McKenzie said.
What did Trump say about birth control on the campaign trail?
During the 2024 campaign, Trump’s statements about birth control access varied. During a May interview with a Pittsburgh TV station, Trump said his team is “looking at” policy as it relates to the right to birth control access, including the morning-after pill.
“Well, we’re looking at that and we’re going to have a policy on that very shortly,” Trump said. “Things really do have a lot to do with the states — and some states are going to have different policy than others.”
Trump later attempted to clarify his position on Truth Social, saying he was not advocating for restrictions on contraceptives.
“I DO NOT SUPPORT A BAN ON BIRTH CONTROL, AND NEITHER WILL THE REPUBLICAN PARTY!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
It’s not just about access to birth control, but how contraception is paid for by the patient’s insurer.
During Trump’s first term in office, the Health and Human Services Department allowed some insurers to opt out of the Affordable Care Act requirement of free birth control, citing religious freedom.
Once Trump returns to the White House, he will have the power to roll back other birth control protections issued by President Joe Biden’s administration, including Biden’s recent plan that would require insurers to fully cover over-the-counter contraceptives.
Then there’s the future of abortion medications in the United States. Trump has claimed he does not support a federal abortion ban, citing the Supreme Court’s overturn of Roe v. Wade as a victory for the states, one that he put in motion, but the president-elect has hinted at revoking access to the abortion medication mifepristone.
During an August news conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort, an NBC News reporter asked whether he would direct the Food and Drug Administration to revoke access to mifepristone.
“There are many things on a humane basis that you can do outside of that,” Trump said in response.
While Planned Parenthood is experiencing a higher-than-usual flow of patients following the election, McKenzie said they are welcoming new patients, and you might even get in same-day.
“If there is, for whatever reason, more of a pressing need, talk to us about that. We can see what we can work out. There’s never anything off the table necessarily when it comes to a need for access,” she said. “I would also say just do your research because sometimes it’ll say ‘Booked’ online, but if you call, maybe someone wasn’t able to come in, and we can get you in that day.”
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This article appears in Nov 13-26, 2024.