On November ballots, millions of Americans will have the opportunity to vote on whether or not to preserve access to contraception.
According to family planning specialists, women encounter increasing obstacles when trying to obtain birth control in states where disputes over reproductive rights have long simmered. Abortion-related worry, uncertainty, and anxiety have spread to the capacity to avoid getting pregnant.
A measure that would have made birth control a national right was rejected by Senate Republicans in June. It is up to the states to determine whether or not to safeguard birth control access.
Missouri, the first state to enact a trigger legislation prohibiting all abortions that are not medically necessary, is one among those states. The amendment that would lift the restriction will be chosen by the electorate.
If approved, the amendment would also safeguard women’s and their physicians’ autonomy to make decisions regarding birth control and other reproductive health care without intervention from the government.
A similar amendment that would provide “the ability to make and effectuate decisions to prevent, continue, or end one’s own pregnancy” will be put to a vote by residents of Maryland, where abortion is permitted up until a fetus is viable.
At the time of the votes, some women are finding it more and more difficult to take their birth control pills. Even before the Supreme Court repealed Roe v. Wade in 2022, demand was mounting in the South and rural regions for access to affordable contraception, such as IUDs, the pill, and patches. According to experts, the choice generated new obstacles.
According to research from the reproductive rights charity Power to Decide, an estimated 19 million women of reproductive age currently reside in areas known as “contraceptive deserts,” where people find it difficult to get a variety of birth control alternatives.
Two significant Supreme Court rulings safeguard the access to contraception. A few justices of the Supreme Court have stated that they plan to review the decisions.
Following the June 2022 decision, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., stated on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that “there is a real risk they may do the same thing on contraception, just as we saw what the Supreme Court did on abortion.”
According to statistics from the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that advocates for access to abortion, legislation protecting the right to contraception are in place in 11 states and Washington, D.C.
Bills that would safeguard the right to contraception for its citizens have been submitted by lawmakers in Arizona, Iowa, and Virginia; in Nevada, such an amendment is probably going to be on the ballot in 2026. The law from Virginia passed both chambers earlier this year, but Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin vetoed it.
According to Michelle Trupiano, executive director of the Missouri Family Health Council, “we see lots of attempts to ban different forms of contraception” in the absence of such legislation.
A bill that would have barred emergency contraception from the state’s Medicaid program was put to a vote in the Missouri Senate in 2021.
Missouri Republican state senator Denny Hoskins told NBC News, “I don’t think that should be paid for by taxpayer dollars.” He also stated that he intends to vote “no” on Amendment 3, which would restore restrictions on abortion and safeguard the state’s right to contraception.
Although he “believes in” IUDs and birth control pills, Hoskins stated that he “does not support the morning-after pill.”
Texas is formally banning emergency contraception from its Healthy Texas Women program, which offers low-income women treatment, through the end of this year.
Since 2014, morning-after medications like Plan B have been sold over-the-counter all throughout the country. Contrary to what some conservative politicians and opponents of abortion assert, the tablets do not terminate a pregnancy. According to the Mayo Clinic, the drug instead prevents a woman from becoming pregnant by delaying ovulation.
Additionally, some religious and policy leaders falsely claim that IUDs are abortifacients, which has caused opposition to clinics that provide them.
Trupiano stated, “We see politicians who intentionally confuse abortion and contraception, that feed that confusion, and that are pushing laws to limit some forms of contraception.”
Does every state have laws allowing birth control?
In the United places, every birth control that has been authorized by the Food and Drug Administration is now lawful. However, in certain places, such as Missouri, pharmacists are legally permitted to refuse to fill a patient’s prescription because of their own religious convictions.
Experts claim that the refusals add to the misunderstanding around contraception.
Approximately 50% of individuals in Missouri are unaware that emergency contraception is permitted there. According to a 2023 study conducted by the Missouri Foundation for Health, at least 40% of people are unaware that IUDs are permitted in the state, while 25% are either unaware or don’t think that birth control pills are lawful.
According to Hoskins, “a lot of people get confused about what exactly is contraception versus what is an abortion.”
Maggie Olivia, a policy manager with the abortion rights advocacy group Abortion Action Missouri, recalls receiving a barrage of calls from women worried that their IUDs were suddenly illegal in the days following the Supreme Court ruling.
Olivia recalled that someone had contacted the clinic and inquired as to whether she needed to remove her IUD on her own. “She was really afraid.”
“It’s a proactive measure that will prevent politicians from limiting that access,” Trupiano said of the amendment on Missouri’s ballot this year. “It won’t solve the existing deserts on its own, but it will provide us with a solid base upon which to build rather than requiring us to continuously defend our rights.”
“Working on funding would be the next step,” Trupiano stated.
Funding for family planning services, such as birth control and preventative medical procedures like Pap screenings, for women who are close to or below the federal poverty threshold is largely provided by Title X family planning grants, which are funds given to certain clinics by the federal government. However, since 2014, the initiative’s financing has remained constant.
Kate Wagner has more than 20 years of experience as a nurse practitioner with the Jefferson County Health Department in Missouri. She is employed in a family planning clinic that now provides birth control to uninsured patients thanks to Title X funding.
According to Wagner, the majority of patients are locals, although others travel up to an hour and a half to get to the clinic.
Not all birth control methods are suitable for everyone, so it’s critical to have a variety of alternatives accessible. “In our area, we’re unique, because not everyone around us has that option to offer everything,” she added.
In the event that she loses access, one of her patients recently requested whether she could have her Nexplanon implant, a hormonal birth control method that lasts up to three years, replaced six months early.
“Our patients ask us what will happen next.” “I said,” she said.
