Examining Rates of Interval Tubal Sterilization Before and After the Dobbs Decision: A Single-Institution Study in a Restrictive Abortion State [ID 1152]

INTRODUCTION: Multiple studies have shown an increase in rates of permanent contraception in the United States after the June 2022 Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v Jackson . We hypothesize that June 2022 was an inflection point for interval tubal sterilization rates in our academic teaching center in an abortion-restrictive state. METHODS: This retrospective chart review used CPT codes to identify pregnancy-capable people undergoing interval tubal sterilization October 2017 to June 2023. Exclusion criteria included: patients undergoing immediate postpartum tubal sterilizations after a vaginal birth/at time of cesarean, receiving opportunistic salpingectomy at time of any other surgery where the primary indication was not sterilization. We used time series analysis to determine whether the number of interval tubal sterilizations changed, comparing rates 1 year prior and 1 year post- Dobbs . We collected age, gravidity, parity, gender, self-reported race/ethnicity, marital status, and insurance type. We used descriptive statistics to show differences between pre- and post- Dobbs cohorts. RESULTS: Four hundred thirty-eight patients met inclusion criteria. We found an average of 5.9 tubal sterilizations/month pre- Dobbs and 10.1 tubal sterilizations/month post- Dobbs . August 2022 had the highest number of 21 tubal sterilizations/month. Median gravidity decreased from three (0–12) to one (0–11) and median parity decreased from two (0–7) to one (0–6) pre- and post- Dobbs ( P <.001). CONCLUSIONS/IMPLICATIONS: Post- Dobbs , there was an increase in numbers of pregnancy-capable people receiving interval tubal sterilization in our academic center in an abortion-restrictive state, with more surgeries performed for those of lower gravidity and parity than before.