Women Consider Long-Term Birth Control Now That Trump Victory Looms Over Reproductive Health
It was a concern echoed in headlines of Elle, Glamour, Jezebel, Vogue, New York Magazine and others. Writer Sophia Benoit told the Intercept that some two dozen women took her up on a Twitter offer, posted just before midnight Nov. 8, to discuss intrauterine devices.
“I recommend the IUD right now especially because it’s long term, which with 20 million+ Americans potentially losing their health insurance and potentially right to an abortion, is important,” Benoit said.
An IUD procedure consists of a doctor implanting the small, T-shaped device within a woman’s uterus. The devices kill sperm before they can fertilize an egg, and the contraceptives do so with high rates of success. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that hormonal implants fail at a rate of just 0.2 percent when properly used, and copper implants have a 0.8 percent failure rate. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommended IUDs to prevent teen pregnancies as “first line” contraceptives in 2014.
Effective for 10 years, ParaGard, a copper-based IUD, could outlast two terms of a Trump administration.
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