Surgical sterilization rates rose after fall of Roe v. Wade

As fears of the consequences of an unintended pregnancy rose after Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, rates of surgical sterilization rose in those states most affected by the decision, new research shows.

Rates of tubal sterilization -- tying, cutting or removing the fallopian tubes -- rose by an average 3% per month in states where abortion became illegal after the Supreme Court ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health . That trend continued for six months after the June 2022 ruling.

"Our study suggests that the Dobbs ruling and subsequent state laws banning or limiting access to abortion may affect a woman's choice of contraception," said lead researcher Xiao Xu , a health outcomes researcher at Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York City.

She noted that deciding to undergo surgical sterilization can have lifelong consequences for women since it is irreversible.

The new findings were published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Xu's team looked at surgical sterilization rates before and after the Dobbs decision among about 4.8 million women in 36 states and Washington, D.C.

Besides the 3% month-by-month rise in states that banned abortion post-Dobbs, there was a similar uptick in states that restricted access to abortion but did not ban it, although the rise did not reach statistical significance.

No rise in surgical sterilization was observed in states where access to abortion remained unchanged.

One recent study suggests that surgical sterilization is not foolproof.

Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) found that between 3% and 5% of U.S. women who underwent tubal ligation later reported an unplanned pregnancy, according to findings published Aug. 27 in the journal NEJM Evidence .

"This study shows that tubal surgery cannot be considered the best way to prevent pregnancy," said lead researcher Dr. Eleanor Bimla Schwarz , chief of general internal medicine at UCSF.

More information

Find out more about surgical sterilization at Johns Hopkins Medicine .

SOURCES: Columbia University Irving Medical Center, news release, Sept. 11 , 2024; University of California, San Francisco, news release, Aug. 27, 2024

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