After Dobbs, Survey Seeks to Understand Telecontraception Clients Better

According to a new KFF survey with a nonprobability sample of clients from four online sources of contraception, one in four clients said they got emergency contraception to have on hand because of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Additionally, more than a fifth (22%) said they have considered sterilization, 12% reported that they considered switching to or started using a more effective method of birth control, and eight percent said that they began to use birth control because of the Dobbs decision. These findings were consistent across states regardless of whether or not abortion was banned.

Respondents said they turned to telecontraception companies for birth control for various reasons, but the most frequently cited reason is that the birth control is delivered to their home (26%). Others noted privacy, difficulties getting appointments, and prior negative interactions with in-person care. Larger shares of LGBT+ individuals compared to non-LGBT+ cited a previous negative experience with an in-person provider as their main reason for getting their most recent birth control prescription online (11% vs. 7%).  Nearly one in five (18%) respondents cited the COVID-19 pandemic as the reason they first accessed birth control online.

These findings come from the KFF Survey of Online Contraception Clients, which was sent to active contraceptive clients over the age of 18 who had received contraception from their company in the past year (272,800 clients) by each of the four participating telecontraception companies. The survey was fielded from October 13 to December 8, 2022. A total of 5,925 telecontraception clients participated in the survey. This survey is based on a nonprobability sample and so its results are not generalizable to all telecontraception users. Learn more about who uses telecontraception and why in the brief, “Who Uses Telecontraception and Why? A Closer Look at Clients of Four Telecontraception Companies.”