More patients across the U.S. are seeking tubal sterilization in light of the Supreme Court's June 24 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, The Washington Post reported Aug. 15.
Dawn Bingham, MD, an OBGYN in Columbia, S.C., told the Post she has seen a spike of patients "calling around finding out who will do this for them, particularly as fast as possible."
"One of my patients who’s pretty young, never had any kids, just wrote me this super heartfelt email the other day about how she is terrified, and that she thinks she should just get her tubes tied," Pam Parker, MD, an OBGYN in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, told the Post.
The spike in requests is also being observed in younger patients. Sarah Salkowski, a 24-year-old who received a bilateral salpingectomy in March, told the Post her physician did "not feel extremely comfortable" performing the procedure on someone her age.
Some OBGYNs have taken to social media to teach about sterilization procedures. Rochester, N.Y.-based Franziska Haydanek, DO, compiled a list of gynecologists "willing to perform a tubal ligation on any patient, 18-21+, no matter their marital status or number of children," the Post reported.