A recent report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has revealed that only 35.7% of women of reproductive age received family planning services in 2022 and 2023. The decline comes amid increasing abortion restrictions following the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, which revoked the federal right to abortion in June 2022.
The Dobbs ruling has led to significant changes in healthcare access, particularly in states like Alabama, where abortion services have been severely restricted. Robin Marty, Executive Director of WAWC Healthcare, said, “When we were doing abortion, we learned that a lot of the patients who were coming in to us were coming in because they had gotten pregnant because they couldn’t access any form of birth control.”
Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch signed the draft opinion to overturn Roe v. Wade just 10 minutes after receiving it. The 98-page draft decision, part of the Dobbs case, was quickly endorsed by Gorsuch with no edits.
Following Gorsuch, other conservative justices joined the draft without changes. Justice Clarence Thomas was the first, followed by Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh.
The Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling in 2022 overturned nearly 50 years of abortion precedent established by Roe v. Wade. This shift removed national abortion protections, returning the issue to state and congressional control.
Justice Samuel Alito wrote, “We end this opinion where we began. Abortion presents a profound moral question. The Constitution does not prohibit the citizens of each State from regulating or prohibiting abortion. Roe and Casey arrogated that authority. We now overrule those decisions and return that authority to the people and their elected representatives.”
Alito added, “The Court did not explain the basis for this line, and even abortion supporters have found it hard to defend Roe’s reasoning.”
In a separate ruling, the Supreme Court upheld an Illinois law banning high-powered semiautomatic weapons, denying a request for a preliminary injunction from the National Association for Gun Rights.
Alito referenced the dissenting opinion from Justices Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor, stating that it “is very candid that it cannot show that a constitutional right to abortion has any foundation, let alone a ‘deeply rooted’ one, ‘in this Nation’s history and tradition.’”
Dissenting justices stated, “Across a vast array of circumstances, a State will be able to impose its moral choice on a woman and coerce her to give birth to a child.”
About 24% of women aged 15 to 49 accessed a birth control prescription, while nearly 4% obtained emergency contraception. Research shows that women in states with strict abortion laws are less likely to access prescription birth control.
