Planned Parenthood of Northern New England is reporting a surge of patients booking appointments for long-acting birth control since Donald Trump’s reelection earlier this month.
The reproductive health care provider — which has 15 locations across New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine — says that reflects patients’ fears about continued access to reproductive care under the incoming administration.
“Our patients are worried,” CEO Nicole Clegg said in a statement. “They are concerned that they may not be able to access the care they need or make the best choices for their health.”
Trump said during the last months of the campaign that he would not sign a national abortion ban, leaving it up to the states to decide. But he’s previously expressed support for national restrictions, and reproductive rights advocates are worried his administration could take steps to curtail abortion access, even without a national ban.
In New Hampshire, bookings for IUDs and other long-acting reversible contraceptives were up by 82% in the week after Nov. 5, Planned Parenthood of Northern New England said.
Meanwhile, across all three states it serves, the organization had already gotten more vasectomy consultation requests by Nov. 15 than it typically sees in an entire month.
Planned Parenthood of Northern New England said it saw a similar increase in patient inquiries after Trump’s first win in 2016, as well as the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision overturning federal protections for abortion in 2022.
Planned Parenthood of Northern New England said it’s also hearing from many patients concerned about what the Trump administration could mean for gender-affirming care, including for transgender adults.
Trump has called on Congress to pass a national ban on gender-affirming care for youth, which he has likened to “child abuse,” as well as legislation that would prohibit Medicare and Medicaid from paying for gender-affirming care at any age. He’s also threatened to investigate hospitals and withhold federal funding from them if they provide gender-affirming care to youth.
