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In the wake of the June 2022 Supreme Court Dobbs decision, as dozens of abortion clinics shut down in states with total or near-total abortion bans, reproductive justice advocates warned that the closures wouldn’t just affect patients seeking to terminate their pregnancies. Family planning clinics have historically provided more than abortion services, often offering basic gynecological health care for women. Indeed, more than 1 in 10 women get their birth control from these clinics, including those that also provide abortions. For low-income patients and people of color, the numbers are closer to one 1 in 5. Without access to affordable and reliable contraception, many more women were bound to become pregnant, whether they liked it or not. And without abortion as an option, many of them would be forced to carry unwanted pregnancies to term.

Now, in the first research to look at national trends in the use of birth control pills and emergency contraceptives in the post-Roe v. Wade era, a University of Southern California study has found evidence that those warnings were warranted. The analysis of what is known as “prescription-fill” data from retail pharmacies across the US found that states with the most draconian abortion policies saw significant declines in the number of birth control prescriptions, especially for emergency contraception.

The study covered the period from March 2021 through October 2023, when approximately 143 million........

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