evidence: Women in states with the most restrictive abortion laws have also become less likely to access prescription birth control, a new study suggests. [...] States with abortion bans saw an even more significant drop in prescriptions for emergency contraception – including levonorgestrel, such as Plan B, and ulipristal, such as Ella. Both groups of states studied – those that enacted bans and those where abortion policies stayed more consistent – had a similar prescription fill rate pre-Dobbs and both and saw an initial spike following the decision. But by the second half of 2023, the prescription rate for emergency contraception in the states with bans was less than half of what it was before the Dobbs decision – dropping from about 20 fills for every 100,000 women of reproductive age each month down to eight fills. In states where abortion policies stayed consistent, the rate actually ticked up in the same timeframe – from 20 to 21 fills.