Why Am I Seeing Girls Everywhere On Social Media Crying Because They Can't Get Birth Control Right Now? Is It Because More People Are Getting On Birth Control After The Overturn Of Roe V. Wade?

Yes it is – sort of.

After the decision in the Dobbs case, which essentially overturned Roe v. Wade, there were people saying that they couldn’t get birth control. But let’s clarify what that means. Condoms were still available, unless you ran into issues where specific pharmacies had employees that didn’t feel comfortable selling it.

What the folks on social media were talking about was usually a problem getting oral contraception or “the pill.” Out of fear of getting pregnant and then being forced to carry it to term or face criminal charges (depending on what state you live in), people were suddenly trying to get the pill in person, and some on-ground pharmacies and clinics weren’t prepared for that rush.

And while you may have seen one story about this on social media, or maybe 10, the truth is that this wasn’t a nationwide issue with supply. The problem tended to be more localized.

 And part of the availability issues actually started before the Dobbs decision. If you look back you can find stories about pill availability issues back to the beginning of the year, and that was being caused by supply chain issues rather than the sudden uptick of fear of women losing the right to control their body. And it’s worth pointing out that those supply issues weren’t as bad as what we were seeing with other products.

For folks who were already on the pill and were getting it through a mail order service, they weren’t having problems getting their prescription after Dobbs.

For me the bigger concern was not about a few folks not being able to get the pill, it was about the limits being put on people’s ability to get Plan B.

Some major nationwide pharmacies were limiting how many packages of Plan B a person could buy, although many of those restrictions have now been eliminated.

If you’re not using a hormonal method of contraception, you may want to think about having some emergency contraception (either Plan B or a generic) on hand in case you need it. You can get it in person, or you can order it online if you want to avoid the trip to the store to pick it up.

Until next time, be safe and have fun!

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