February 4, 2019

After Trump’s Election, There Was a Big Spike in Long-Term Birth Control Use

It turns out that Donald Trump’s election was good for business after all. Some businesses, anyway. A team of researchers reports that after Election Day lots of women suddenly decided they wanted long-acting birth control:

In 2015, the mean adjusted daily LARC [long-acting reversible contraception] insertion rate during the 30 business days before and inclusive of November 8 was 12.9 per 100 000 women vs 13.7 per 100 000 women during the subsequent 30 business days. The comparable mean adjusted daily LARC insertion rates before and after the 2016 presidential election were 13.4 per 100 000 women and 16.3 per 100 000 women, an increase of 21.6%.

The big question, of course, is why this happened. There are several possibilities:

  • Many women decided they didn’t want to raise children in a country that could elect Donald Trump president.
  • Women were afraid of a Handmaid’s Tale hellscape coming and wanted to prepare.
  • Women were afraid Trump would kill off Obamacare, so they wanted to get their LARC inserted for free while they could.

Any other guesses?

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This is how change happens.

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This investigative reporting takes time too. Months of research. Weeks of writing, editing, and fact checking—and putting together the photography, art, video, and audio that tell the stories in a new way, illuminating new perspectives and voices.

We can afford to take our time because we don’t report to oligarchs or corporations. We report to you, and for you.

And the stakes are high. Democracy is on the defense. We’ve been exposing corruption and scandal for five decades, and this is a pivotal moment in our country’s history. Will democracy prevail? We won’t wait for time to tell—independent journalism is essential for democracy, and we’ll keep doing our part to amplify the free press.

So, we’re asking: Will you join the fight? Mother Jones has been here for 50 years, and we need your support to fuel the future of investigative journalism. Mark our 50th anniversary with a gift of any amount.

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