Post-Roe Sterilization Surge Fades as Social Media Turns Women Against Birth Control, Researchers Say

When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, doctors reported a real, measurable shift in how Americans handled birth control. Research shows more people got IUDs and implants, and procedures like vasectomies and tubal ligation spiked.

That reaction has mostly faded, according to Dr. Caitlin Bernard, an OB-GYN in Indianapolis who helps lead a statewide free birth control program and who was involved in a high-profile abortion case soon after Roe was overturned. Bernard says her patients aren't talking much anymore about the abortion ban that's been in place in Indiana for years. "This is just the normal status quo now," she said. "Other things that help you decide whether or not to use contraception are more top of mind."

Bernard says her patients are weighing practical questions instead — whether to take a pill or get an IUD, and whether insurance covers either option. She also sees patients worried about finances generally and trying to avoid the doctor to steer clear of unexpected medical bills.

But Bernard says there's one thing affecting her patients' decision-making more than it used to: social media, and the rise of "Make America Healthy Again" and "trad wife" influencers, both of which deliver messages that hormonal birth control is bad for women.

The claims versus the evidence

These kinds of videos are all over social media. Research shows hormonal birth control options are safe and effective at preventing pregnancy, but many of these videos exaggerate potential side effects and minimize the downsides of non-hormonal alternatives. Most are posted by people who aren't medical professionals.

Cynthia Harper, a contraception researcher at the University of California San Francisco, says two things are converging. One is what she calls "a social media phenomenon of wellness influencers with non-evidence-based personal experiences that are just ricocheting through the stratosphere." The other is ideological — an overlap with "policy that women are supposed to be at home having a lot of babies, young," referring to the pronatalist movement.

"These two things have come together and contraception has never been so maligned," Harper said.

Harper also points to political forces working against birth control access, saying the Trump administration has cut funding for reproductive health providers across the country and for the health system more broadly. "Everything I see points to lower access to contraception," she said.

What's actually unresolved

The number of abortions has gone up in recent years even as states have enacted bans. Harper calls it an intriguing hypothesis that a cultural push against birth control could be leading to more unplanned pregnancies and therefore more abortions — but she says testing that would require surveying people seeking abortion care and asking whether restricted contraception access was the reason for the pregnancy. That research hasn't been done.

Brittni Frederiksen, a women's health policy researcher at the nonpartisan organization KFF, doesn't think shifts in birth control use explain the recent rise in abortion numbers. "I actually think the number of abortions going up is likely just due to increased abortion accessibility, particularly with telehealth medication abortions," she said. Telehealth medication abortion — getting pills from a pharmacy or by mail after a telehealth visit — has grown dramatically in popularity since becoming available during the COVID-19 pandemic. A high-profile legal case from Louisiana is now aimed at removing that option for patients nationwide.

As for whether abortion bans have changed birth control use, Frederiksen points to a KFF women's health survey conducted every two years. In 2024, 82% of sexually active reproductive-age women were using contraception, and 6% were not; the rest were pregnant, trying to conceive, or unable to conceive. KFF has since fielded the survey again, and Frederiksen says an early look at the 2026 data shows shares using contraception are "pretty similar."

Frederiksen says cultural attitudes toward birth control and political forces are changing, and funding cuts affecting access are happening — though perhaps in ways that aren't yet visible in the data.

What's established: IUD, implant, and sterilization procedures spiked after Roe fell in 2022, and that surge has since leveled off. Influencer content critical of hormonal birth control has proliferated, most of it from people without medical training. Whether that trend is driving unintended pregnancies and abortions, as opposed to simply changing which method women pick, remains an open question — one researchers say requires its own data, not an inference from viral videos.