News reports in the aftermath of President Donald Trump’s election told of women, concerned over threats to the Affordable Care Act and Planned Parenthood, rushing to get long-term forms of birth control, including IUDs and hormonal implants.
A study in JAMA Internal Medicine, published Monday, validated those anecdotal reports, documenting a spike in women seeking long-acting, reversible contraception, otherwise known as LARC.
Brigham and Women’s Hospital researchers found that the number of patients using LARC in the 30 days after the November 2016 election increased by nearly 22 percent from the 30 days before the election, The Boston Globe reported.
The data shows there have been “21,000 additional IUDs or implants [per month] that we can associate with the election,” Dr. Lydia Pace, director of Brigham’s Women’s Health Policy and Advocacy Program, told the Globe.
A separate report published in March 2017 by the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology further bolsters the correlation. It noted that of more than 2,100 reproductive-aged women and girls studied in the U.S., 5 percent obtained LARC in the two months after the election.
Both Trump and Vice President Mike Pence campaigned on anti-abortion platforms. Pence had a history of rolling back women’s health care before he entered the White House during his time as governor of Indiana.
Trump has vowed repeatedly to “repeal and replace” Obamacare, but it still stands with modifications, and most types of birth control remain covered under the measure.