Examining contraception-related discourse on social media after the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization Supreme Court decision: a textual analysis of user-generated content on X (formerly Twitter)

On June 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturned Roe v. Wade, a landmark 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision that established a constitutional right to abortion, raising concerns about its potential impact on sexual and reproductive health equity. In this exploratory study, we analyzed user-generated content on Twitter (now X) to identify emerging themes and sentiments related to contraception in the aftermath of this landmark ruling. In this study, we followed a text mining approach using data obtained from Twitter (Now “X”) to conduct emotion and sentiment analysis and topic modeling. We analyzed 26,755 tweets mentioning “contraception”, “contraceptive” or specific contraceptive methods, collected prospectively between June 24, 2022, the date of the landmark Supreme Court ruling, and July 10, 2022. The average sentiment of the tweets was predominantly negative. Emotion analysis revealed “trust” (21.4%) as the most frequent sentiment, followed by “anticipation” (17.2%) and “fear” (16.8%). Topic modeling identified 15 prominent themes, including the reexamination of fundamental rights, contraceptive coverage, forced pregnancy, reproductive agency and confidentiality. The study highlights the role of social media in reflecting societal concerns and uncertainties about contraceptive access with shifts in the legislative landscape of women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights and offers implications for policy and practice in addressing barriers to contraceptive access and use in the post-Roe Era.