Millions of U.S. women face severe shortages of affordable birth-control services

Power to Decide and the Guttmacher Institute released updated county-level maps that reveal 21.4 million women of reproductive age lack adequate access to affordable contraception in their home counties. The maps focus on brick-and-mortar clinics that receive federal or state funding and estimate capacity using patient caseload data, while demand is derived from the National Survey of Family Growth's question about contraceptive use if cost were no barrier.

In Maricopa County, Arizona, 29 publicly funded clinics serve nearly 300,000 women, but only roughly 8% of the need is satisfied, an "extreme access gap" according to researchers. The study notes that many clinics have closed since 2020, partly due to Title X funding cuts and upcoming Medicaid work-requirement provisions in H.R. 1. Advocates argue that Title X funding must rise from under $300 million to at least $700 million to close the gap, and they call for repeal of work-requirement rules and better public education about available services.