Planned Parenthood clinics in Kentucky see 'post-election surge' in demand for birth control

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Demand for long-acting and permanent contraceptives this month has spiked at Planned Parenthood locations in Lexington and Louisville as well as across the country — an uptick the reproductive health care provider says “reflects patients’ intensified concerns over preserving their reproductive choices as political uncertainties grow.”

In October at Planned Parenthood’s two clinics in Kentucky, there were 138 appointments for long-acting reversible contraceptives, like IUDs and contraceptive injections.

The volume of appointments for contraceptives in Lexington and Louisville increased by 66% in the days immediately following the election, to 230 appointments between Nov. 6-18.

Nicole Erwin, communications manager for Planned Parenthood, said 61 appointments — or 26% of the total — to request a long-acting contraceptive were scheduled on Nov. 6 alone. Election Day was Nov. 5, and former President Donald Trump emerged as the winner early the next day.

Planned Parenthood linked the significant increase to Trump’s return to the White House.

Trump built the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority during his first term, and in 2022 the high court overturned Roe v. Wade, long-standing precedent that had provided federal abortion protections for half a century, kicking it back to the states to police. Twenty-one states — including Kentucky — ban abortion or restrict access to the procedure earlier in pregnancy than the standard set in Roe, which protected access until viability.

“We’re seeing record numbers of patients making proactive reproductive health choices to help secure their ability to control pregnancy outcomes, Rebecca Gibron, CEO of Planned Parenthood Greater Northwest, Hawaii, Alaska, Indiana and Kentucky, said in a statement earlier this week.

“In a landscape where reproductive health care access is increasingly under threat, expanded access to effective contraception options has become even more urgent.”

Demand for permanent surgical sterilization, like tubal litigation, have also increased, Planned Parenthood said.

Kentucky reproductive health care providers reported a similar demand swell in the weeks and months directly following the overturning of Roe in 2022.

At Planned Parenthood clinics under Gibron’s oversight, the equivalent of “roughly a month’s worth of appointments (1,277) have been made in just a few days,” and “the demand for vasectomies has already exceeded last month’s total, doubling October’s numbers.”