contraception

What happens to Veterans who become pregnant when using contraception?

In a study published by the Journal of Women's Health, CONVERGE's Drs. Chang, Callegari, Borrero, and Quinn found that these pregnancies are more likely to end in an abortion than live birth. Given widespread reproductive health restrictions across the US, ensuring Veterans' access to comprehensive health care, including abortion, is critical to supporting reproductive autonomy and whole health.

Has the fall of Roe changed contraceptive access and use? Dr. Kavanaugh explores this question in Arizona, Iowa, New Jersey, and Wisconsin, finding that receiving one's preferred contraception is more difficult and receiving high quality contraception care is less likely. In a post-Dobbs world, comprehensive contraception care is necessary and barriers to this care can be detrimental to people's health.

Read more about Dr. Kavanaugh's findings here: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38756551/

Dr. Megan Kavanaugh found that avenues for decreasing the gap between contraceptive methods used and those preferred to be used may lie with healthcare providers and funding streams that support the delivery of contraceptive care. 23% of participants reported preferring to use a method other than their current method, ranging from 17% in Iowa to 26% in New Jersey.

Drs. Ellison, Brown-Podgorski, and Morgan analyzed TriNetX data and found that permanent contraception not only increased among adults 18-30 following Dobbs, but the increase in procedures for female patients was double that for male patients.

The freedom to use one’s preferred contraceptive method—or no method—is fundamental to reproductive autonomy, which is a particularly salient issue for disabled people, who face substantial barriers to person-centered contraceptive care while also being subjected to interference in reproductive decision making.

Dr. Lisa Callegari and her team looked at the variation in provision of long-acting reversible contraceptive (LARC) method across Veteran Affairs facilities. They found substantial variation in LARC provision with less frequency at rural facilities.

Read more about their findings here: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37340270/

Dr. Kavanaugh's research points to the need for policies that ensure access to a diversity of contraceptive sources. This will have the greatest likelihood of closing the gap between people's contraceptive access preferences and realities.

Read more about her findings here: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37099807/

May 9th marks Free the Pill Day—a day commemorating when the US FDA approved the first birth control pill in 1960. Today is also an opportunity to advance health equity and advocate for birth control that is over-the-counter, fully covered by insurance, and accessible to all ages.

Integration of reproductive health services into primary care is a strategy to address service gaps and improve patient-centered care. This study assessed receipt of contraceptive and pre-pregnancy health counseling among pregnancy-capable Veterans within VA primary care.