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By Macy Markham
Cronkite News

WASHINGTON – Sales of birth control and emergency contraception – morning-after pills like Plan B and Restart – have spiked since President-elect Donald Trump’s victory, despite his assurances he won’t try to roll back access.

Clinics have seen a jump in inquiries about long-acting birth control methods such as IUDs, or intrauterine devices, from women worried they wouldn’t be able to end an unplanned pregnancy in coming years.

“Patients are scared,” said Dr. Dawn Bingham, an OB-GYN in South Carolina, one of four states that ban abortion after six weeks.

Trump has flatly denied that his presidency will leave women without access to birth control pills and other contraceptives.

But some women are skeptical or just don’t want to take any chances given his previous comments.

Earlier this year, Trump suggested openness to restrictions at the state level. And he named three of the six justices behind the ruling that ended federal protection for abortion access, delivering on a 2016 campaign promise that his Supreme Court picks would overturn Roe v. Wade.

His stance on emergency contraception remains hazy.

He has promised to veto a federal ban on abortion. But there are fears he could still make it hard to get nonsurgical abortions by banning telehealth or interstate shipments of abortion-inducing drugs.

Winx Health, which makes Restart, reported weekly sales after Election Day were 36 times higher than in the previous week.

Until then, single-dose packs were the most popular option, according to the company. Now, 75% of purchases are four-dose value packs; sales spiked 9,000% week over week.

Hey Jane, a company that sells emergency contraceptives direct to patients, said orders of emergency contraception jumped 187% in the first three days after Trump’s victory. Sales of mifepristone – used in 63% of all U.S. abortions last year – rose 25%.

Hey Jane CEO and co-founder Kiki Freedman sought to reassure women that access to these medications will continue.

“While we are incredibly disappointed” that Trump won, she said in a statement, “we want to be clear: People can still access abortion care with Hey Jane — and we are more committed than ever to providing safe, compassionate, evidence-based reproductive and sexual health care services.”

Women also tried to stock up on abortion-inducing drugs when the Supreme Court overturned Roe in 2022, according to research published in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Appointments and searches for long-acting reversible birth control methods have also surged.

The day after the election, Planned Parenthood Federation of America reported IUD appointments were up 760% from the day before. Appointments were up 350% for progestin implants – a small plastic rod inserted in the upper arm that prevents pregnancy for three years.

Bingham, the OB-GYN, said the political environment is even prompting some women to consider sterilization through tubal ligation.

Planned Parenthood’s web page on vasectomies saw a 1,200% increase in traffic the day after the election, the organization said.

“More patients, younger patients, and some patients who have never been pregnant are requesting permanent contraception,” Bingham said. Patients “are scared that their options for long-acting, reversible contraception may be restricted or taken away completely in the coming months.”

Some of the frenzy stems from confusion over the implications of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the Supreme Court ruling that struck down Roe in June 2022.

Roe was one of a series of rulings involving privacy rights not explicitly mentioned in the Constitution. Justice Clarence Thomas argued in a concurring opinion to Dobbs that the Supreme Court should also revisit those, too – including rulings protecting interracial marriage and access to contraception.

Numerous states, including Arizona, restricted access to abortion as soon as they could after Dobbs came down. Arizona voters overturned a 15-week ban this month by approving a state constitutional amendment that protects abortion access through fetal viability.

Some conservative lawmakers around the country floated proposals to curb access to contraception, especially day-after pills intended for use in case of unprotected sex. Such pills work by preventing ovulation, fertilization or implantation – meaning they preclude pregnancy rather than ending it.

According to a KFF survey conducted about six months after Dobbs, about half of adults reported they were “unsure” if abortion medication remained legal in their state. That included 41% of women ages 18 to 49.

“The trends we see make it clear that access to sexual and reproductive health care is top of mind for many,” said Danika Severino Wynn, vice president of care and access for Planned Parenthood. “Especially those who live in states where abortion care has already been banned or restricted.”

Trump has sent mixed messages.

In May, a Pittsburgh TV reporter asked if he would consider restrictions on birth control.

“We’re looking at that,” Trump said, adding, “Some states are going to have different policies than others.”

The implication that he was open to restrictions prompted an uproar, and he quickly walked back the comments.

“I HAVE NEVER, AND WILL NEVER ADVOCATE FOR IMPOSING RESTRICTIONS ON BIRTH CONTROL,” he posted on social media.

Project 2025, the blueprint for a second Trump administration generated by the conservative Heritage Foundation, calls for the FDA to revoke approval for mifepristone. Trump distanced himself from Project 2025 during the campaign but has named key authors to top posts.

The lengthy document also calls for enforcement of the Comstock Act. The anti-smut law from 1873 made it a crime to ship any drug or device that could be used to prevent or terminate a pregnancy – or to share information by mail on how to prevent pregnancy.

The Comstock Act went unused for decades even before Roe in 1973 made it unconstitutional. But it remained on the books despite a few failed congressional attempts at repeal.

The Department of Justice took the position after Dobbs that if Comstock were ever enforced, prosecutors would have to prove the sender knew the items at issue would be used illegally. And mifepristone and most drugs and material used in abortions have lawful uses besides abortion.

The Trump Justice Department could issue a different interpretation.

In August, Trump said he would not seek to enforce Comstock.

He could face pressure within his administration. Last year, Vice President-elect JD Vance joined other lawmakers in a letter urging the DOJ to use the law to prosecute the “reckless distribution of abortion drugs by mail.”

“We expect that you put the law and your obligation to enforce it above the abortion industry’s dangerous and deadly political agenda,” they wrote.

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