Researchers found an “abrupt increase” in the number of young people undergoing permanent sterilization procedures following the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision in June of 2022.
The University of Pittsburgh-led study published last week in JAMA Health Forum analyzed medical records data for 18- to 30-year-olds from Jan. 1, 2019, though May 31, 2022 — before the Dobbs decision — and from June 1, 2022, to Sept. 30, 2023 — after Dobbs. They ultimately found that there were 58 more tubal ligations per 100,000 outpatient visits after Dobbs and 5.31 procedures per month, and 27 more vasectomies per 100,000 visits with no significant change in the number of procedures per month.
Before Dobbs, the monthly permanent contraception rate increased by 2.84 and 1.03 procedures per 100,000 person-months among female and male patients, respectively, according to the study.
“We observed an abrupt increase in permanent contraception procedures among adults aged 18 to 30 years following Dobbs. The increase in procedures for female patients was double that for male patients,” researchers wrote.
A tubal ligation is a procedure in which a woman’s fallopian tubes are cut, blocked, or sealed off to prevent pregnancy, and a vasectomy is a procedure that closes off the ends of the vas deferens, which are the tubes that carry sperm, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
Co-author Jacqueline Ellison, an assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health, said researchers wanted to study this age group because they are “much more likely to have an abortion and … to experience sterilization regret relative to their older counterparts,” according to NBC News.
The NBC report stated:
It’s difficult to prove the Dobbs decision caused a rise in women and men undergoing permanent birth control. But the new study used a particular statistical approach that, Ellison said, strongly suggested the increase in sterilization procedures flowed from the Supreme Court’s decision and the subsequent actions in 21 states to ban or further restrict access to abortion.
One of the study’s limitations is that data was not broken down state by state, which would show more of a correlation between procedures and individual policies, researchers noted.
Researchers ultimately suggested that the end of the constitutional “right” to abortion via the Dobbs decision “may have also increased a sense of urgency among individuals who were interested in permanent contraception before the decision.”
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.