Contraceptive deserts worsen during pandemic
Several reports of women having to travel excessive distances and wait long times for prescriptions
(A graphic produced by Power to Decide, a think tank dedicated to repro rights)
While much of the focus recently has been on abortion access, correspondingly there have been some articles that have depicted some of the challenges women will have with getting contraceptives should clinics close.
Contraceptive Deserts, which are areas that don’t have enough family planning options to serve their populations, have been in the media recently. Spectrum News 1–a regional outlet in Massachusetts–reported that some women in New York had to travel three and half hours to the nearest Planned Parenthood.
Power to Decide, a reproductive rights think tank, conducted research that found that 19 million women who are eligible for publicly-funded birth control don’t have access to the full range of those options. The organization also had other research pertaining to Texas’ contraceptive deserts.
Ideally, there is one such health clinic per 1,000 women.
Contraceptive access has worsened during the pandemic. Pharmacies don’t have enough staff to keep up with their prescriptions. There has also been an uptick in mail-order contraceptive prescriptions to meet the demand. Here are a few reports on the matter.
Even in states like New York–typically driving the reproductive rights narrative–there is room for improvement. As Jenna Bimbi wrote for the New York Daily News, politicians there can help women by permitting pharmacists to dispense birth control. That reduces co-pays for doctor visits and the travel and time needed to get a birth control prescription. Doing so would also ease the patient load for primary care physicians, which are in a shortage now.
The issue could gain traction politically. National polls indicate widespread support for free birth control. A poll conducted by YouGov and the Economist indicated that 91 percent of people who supported abortion rights wanted birth control to be free. Sixty-one percent of those who were antiabortion also supported expanded birth control access.