Study: More women getting tubes tied since Roe was overturned

The number of women who have had their tubes tied has increased since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022.

Since Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, more and more women are choosing to have their tubes tied—especially in states with abortion bans, according to a new study.

The study, recently published in the journal JAMA Network, examined insurance claims data from 2021 and 2022 for more than 4.8 million women who got tubal ligations, which are surgeries to close the fallopian tubes so the patient can no longer get pregnant. The data came from 36 states and Washington, D.C.

According to the study, in the 18 months before Roe was overturned, the number of tubal ligations remained stable in all the states. But, after June 2022, the number of procedures rose. Researchers also looked at sustained change in the numbers over time, finding that tubal ligations rose by 3% each month in banned states.

It’s “not entirely surprising” given the changes to abortion laws, said Xiao Xu, lead author of the research letter and associate professor of reproductive sciences at Columbia University’s Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.

In April, another study was published in JAMA Health Forum that found an abrupt increase in sterilization procedures among women and men aged 18 to 30 years old after Roe was overturned. Jacqueline Ellison, who works at the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Public Health, was the study’s author. 

“It looks like the data [the other investigators] used were able to break things down by state, which is nice and something we were unable to do with the data we used,” Ellison said.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.