r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Jan 06 '25

Health After the US overturned Roe v Wade, permanent contraception surged among young adults living in states likely to ban abortion, new research found. Compared to May 2022, August 2022 saw 95% more vasectomies and 70% more tubal sterilizations performed on people between the ages of 19 and 26.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/06/permanent-contraception-abortion-roe-v-wade
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u/Mr-Scurvy Jan 07 '25

It's huge because the number is small. If you follow the links the increase was 58 more tubes tied and 27 more vasectomies over the course of a year.

Always be suspicious of large percentage gains cited somewhere. Like when someone claims they have the fastest growing customer base that jumped 500% last year but they went from 2 customers to 10.

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u/AnalLeakageChips Jan 08 '25

That seems insanely underreported to me. I was 27 so I just missed being included in this study but I know I wasn't the only person to jump to be sterilized by far

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u/Mr-Scurvy Jan 08 '25

The data set they used was pulled from a network of hospitals and the actual number of procedures coded.