With Rights and Resources Uncertain, They’re Seeking Sterilization

A few years ago, Dr. Leah Tatum, an obstetrician-gynecologist in Austin, noticed a shift among her patients.

Texas had passed a law in 2021, commonly known as the Heartbeat Act, banning abortion after about six weeks. Soon after, more young, child-free women were coming to her clinic for sterilization surgeries.

Dr. Tatum noticed a similar uptick a year later, when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, which established the constitutional right to abortion. And again earlier this year, after the second inauguration of President Trump.

Her patients expressed concerns about their continued access to other forms of contraception in the current political landscape.

“There was a sense of desperation,” she said. “Women feel like they are backed into a corner.”

Female sterilization, medically called tubal ligation or salpingectomy, entails removing, severing or blocking the fallopian tubes. It is a permanent and highly effective form of contraception. For decades, the typical sterilization patient was an older woman who had already had children, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But emerging data mirrors what Dr. Tatum was seeing at her clinic: After Roe was overturned in 2022, more younger, child-free women opted for the consequential procedure, effectively eliminating their chances of unintended pregnancies. One study, published last April, which looked at medical records from across the country, found that from June 2022 to September 2023, 21,180 18- to 30-year-olds had tubal ligations, up from 11,480 in that age group in the four years before the decision.

And, while more recent data isn’t available, patients and clinicians from seven states, some of which had abortion bans and others of which did not, as well as representatives from Planned Parenthood, told The New York Times that interest in the procedure among that demographic had remained high over the last three years, including after the 2024 election.

Some women told The Times that sterilization was a way to control their bodies and health at a time when their reproductive rights are in jeopardy and abortion is banned or restricted in 19 states.

Others said that economic fears, like the loss of their job or income, drove them to choose sterilization over other forms of birth control. Still others said that the procedure was simply the contraceptive option that suited them best…