An increasing number of women are looking to permanently sterilize themselves after the overturning of Roe v. Wade jeopardized abortion access in vast swathes of the country, according to Kaiser Health News (KHN).
More couples are seeking out permanent forms of birth control since the Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe in June, multiple doctors told KHN. Men are increasingly seeking out vasectomies and, like their male counterparts, the new wave of women eager to undergo tubal ligation are disproportionately young and childless.
“I got 99 problems but tubes ain’t one.”
📝: @ambolton1/@Ellis_Juhlin, KHN/@NPR #RoeVWade #AbortionBan https://t.co/0WPZ6gDIxu
— Kaiser Health News (@KHNews) July 25, 2022
“She wanted to have autonomous control over her body, and this was her way of ensuring she was the person who got to make the decisions,” Dr. Kavita Arora told KHN, describing what one patient said before a recent surgery. Dr. Marilee Simons of Bozeman Health Deaconess Hospital in Montana said many young women in their 20s and 30s with no children have asked for sterilization consultations in recent weeks.
“They are still worried about an unintended pregnancy and what that might mean in the future,” Dr. Simons said.
Planned Parenthood of Montana president and CEO Martha Fuller described an “unprecedented” level of interest in tubal ligation since Roe was overturned. (RELATED: Prominent Pro-Abortion Group Appears To Be Front For Radical Revolutionary Communists)
Dr. Arora said some younger patients are finding it difficult to obtain the procedure because some doctors won’t perform sterilization surgery on young and childless women. “I honestly believe my job is not to be a gatekeeper, but to empower and uplift those goals and wishes, especially after good, shared decision-making and informed consent,” she said.
Some young women are celebrating their sterilizations with “sterilization showers,” KHN reported. 25-year-old Dani Marietti did just that by getting together with friends to celebrate her procedure with pun-laden signs and baked goods marked with pro-choice slogans.
“My Body, My Choice,” read the frosting on some of Marietti’s cookies, according to KHN.