A TIME investigation has revealed that doctors are more likely to pressure Black, Latina, young, and low-income women into accepting long-term contraceptives. Some women have reported that doctors refuse to remove these contraceptives upon request. Miannica Frison, for example, felt pressured into accepting an IUD during labor at UAB Hospital in Birmingham, Alabama, in 2020, and later struggled to have it removed. Studies indicate that women who feel coerced into using these contraceptives are less likely to trust their doctors or continue using birth control. Doula Aisha Prewitt noted that power dynamics in the South often make Black women feel unable to refuse doctors' recommendations. The investigation highlights concerns that an important public health tool, intended to empower women, is sometimes used in ways that undermine their agency.
Miannica Frison felt that she was pressured in the midst of a difficult birth into long term birth control. When she later asked for the IUD to be removed, she could not persuade her gynecologist to take it out https://t.co/O7IwuPp6sh https://t.co/SuyhQ65W72
Though the birth control pill is not the right fit for everybody, reproductive justice experts worry the spread of misinformation about the pill is part of a more nefarious effort. https://t.co/qIoVgXIYLX
The Pill is uniquely susceptible to the swirl of ideologies that swamps modern women. @poppy_sowerby: 👇 https://t.co/MiCVFp8opW
A young woman has detailed her horror experience at the doctors that left her feeling like she’s “not entitled” to basic health care. https://t.co/67L0ZefEfa
‘Once seen as a tool of sexual liberation, the Pill is now often spoken of as a pharmaceutical menace.’ @poppy_sowerby: 👇 https://t.co/MiCVFp8opW
‘I Don’t Have Faith in Doctors Anymore.’ Women Say They Were Pressured Into Long-Term Birth Control https://t.co/batoyw7zct
An increasing body of evidence indicates that an important public health tool intended to give women agency over their bodies is at times deployed in ways that take it away https://t.co/D6mN0A2Ryj https://t.co/3vjNhEnmAJ
Even if they have good intentions, doctors, in their enthusiasm for effective birth control, may strong-arm certain women into getting and keeping contraceptive methods they don’t want https://t.co/wKuIRDnkc0
Power dynamics in the South sometimes make Black women feel like they can’t refuse doctors’ recommendations, says doula Aisha Prewitt. “They will say, ‘It’s not coercion, it’s birth control,’” Prewitt says. “But they’re not presenting other options" https://t.co/qTdOzRX3vn
Women who feel pressured into getting an IUD or implant are less likely to trust their doctors or stay on any birth control as a result, according to studies https://t.co/u23Kvj4aeV
"[d]octors are disproportionately likely to push [long-acting] contraceptives when treating Black, Latina, young, and low-income women, or to *refuse to remove them* when requested." https://t.co/l9ioAUJxVn
A TIME investigation found doctors are more likely to push long-term contraceptives when treating Black, Latina, young, and low-income women. Some doctors refuse to remove them when requested https://t.co/3XXkEszis2
‘I Don’t Have Faith in Doctors Anymore.’ Women Say They Were Pressured Into Long-Term Birth Control | Time Miannica Frison was in the throes of labor in 2020 when a nurse entered her room at UAB Hospital in Birmingham, Ala. Frison was screaming in pain. But rather than see how… https://t.co/FCY5tP1x9m
EXCLUSIVE: Black women say that doctors pressured them into long-term birth control in an effort to limit who reproduces in America.