Birth Control

Federal clinics in Texas are already required to get parental permission to prescribe birth control after a 2022 court ruling.

The uptick comes a year after Texas’ six-week abortion ban went into effect in 2021.

Last year, Judge Matthew Kacmsaryk closed off one of the only avenues for Texas teens to get confidential contraception. The 5th Circuit on Monday considered arguments in the case.

From convenience stores to online, the tablet "will be an available option for millions of people in the United States," the director of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research says.

Trump-appointed federal judge Matthew Kacsmaryk ruled that free birth control for teens from a federal program violates Texas law and parental rights. For now, it's still available in other states.

The Title X program has long provided free, confidential contraception to anyone, regardless of age, income or immigration status. A North Texas federal judge ruled in December that the program violates Texas law and parents’ rights.

For decades birth control research focused on women. Now there's a new push to develop gels, pills or other products that could keep men from getting their partners pregnant.

Some people are having deeper conversations earlier on in dating — not just about contraception and potential pregnancy but about values. The result can be increased intimacy, but also exhaustion, particularly among women.

Local doctors have seen a surge in requests for vasectomies and salpingectomies since Texas' abortion bans went into effect. Some people see this as a way to remain childfree, while others want to avoid high-risk pregnancies.

A Supreme Court ruling overturned Roe v. Wade. Now there's a big push to increase funding for Title X, a federal program that offers birth control and other reproductive care to low-income patients.