Amid uncertainty about the future, more Minnesotans seek long-acting birth control

Planned Parenthood is reporting a post-election surge of interest in Minnesota and neighboring states among women seeking long-acting birth control and men seeking vasectomies.

Concerns about potential threats to access under President-elect Donald Trump’s administration has prompted some young adults to take action before he takes office in January, said Ruth Richardson, chief executive of Planned Parenthood North Central States. The St. Paul-based provider of reproductive health services has filled all appointments through January for men seeking a vasectomy.

“People want to ensure they can get access to these things while they know that they can,” Richardson said.

The response is based on uncertainty as much as facts. Trump was noncommittal during his campaign on reproductive health topics, hinting that he might let states continue to set their own abortion policies rather than pursue a federal ban or limit. He suggested at one point that he might pursue a federal policy limiting access to birth control, before pledging later on the same day on social media to “never advocate imposing restrictions on birth control.”

Calls to Planned Parenthood for appointments regarding long-acting birth control such as intrauterine devices (IUDs) nonetheless jumped 150% in Minnesota and the rest of the region after the Nov. 5 election. Google similarly reported a surge Nov. 6 in online searches for “birth control” and “is birth control going to be banned,” particularly in historically conservative states such as Indiana, Mississippi and West Virginia.

Richardson wasn’t surprised. Calls to Planned Parenthood for long-acting birth control reached peak levels in early 2017 after Trump began his first term as president. They gradually declined during the pandemic until a new surge in July 2022, when the Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade decision that had preserved abortion access nationwide.

Reactions to the election results also weren’t surprising given the high amount of stress among voters. Seven in 10 Americans cited the election in one recent survey as a significant source of stress in their lives.

“The landscape that we have right now is ever-shifting in terms of what people have access to” for birth control, said Richardson, noting that changes are just as likely to come from court rulings as they are from Congress or the president.

No candidate discussed limiting access to vasectomies. About one in 10 U.S. men seek these common sterility procedures, most of them younger men who don’t want to be a parent or married middle-age men who don’t want more children. Michigan researchers documented a surge in vasectomy consults and procedures after the overturn of Roe v. Wade in 2022, more so among men who were single or had no children.

Planned Parenthood isn’t alone in seeing patients taking action when they think political changes could threaten access.

Allina Health midwife Kathrine Simon said her clinic in the past has received more requests from women for new or extended forms of long-acting birth control after significant court rulings or changes in federal or state leadership.

Allina did not provide information for this report on appointments or requests after the most recent election.