Immediately after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade via the Dobbs decision, giving states control to restrict abortion, Google recorded the highest volume of searches for “vasectomy” in the past five years. Research later reported rising interest in tubal sterilizations among females was twice as high as the increase among vasectomies in males. The data reflected a broader trend: more women were seeking out birth control options as they faced a future of a more restrictive abortion access landscape.
But now, a new study has found that the stress of the Dobbs decision wasn’t only affecting what contraceptive methods patients were seeking, but also how some doctors were responding and counseling their patients in return.
