(359) Vasectomy Trends in Western NY Following Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization

Abstract

Abstract Introduction On June 24, 2022, the United States Supreme Court ruled on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (Dobbs) that the Constitution of the United States does not confer a right to abortion. The court’s decision overruled both Roe v. Wade (1973) and Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992), giving individual states the full power to regulate any aspect of abortion not protected by federal law. Objective Our study aims to identify the difference, if any, in the number of vasectomies performed in Western NY before and after the ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Methods We performed a retrospective chart review of 2428 patients who had vasectomies in Western New York from August 2021 – March 2023. Leveraging a dataset containing de-identified patient information, we compared the rates of all men undergoing vasectomies in the six-month period before and after the ruling. Vasectomy case information collected by urologists in Buffalo dating back to 1996 was collected and tabulated using Excel. Statistical analyses were performed to compare differences in both the overall change in frequency of vasectomies among all men in the six-month period before and after the court decision, as well as by specific demographic groups. Statistical analyses were performed in R and SAS. Results Men with no children had a statistically significant increase (p=0.009) in the number of vasectomies in the six-month period after the Dobbs decision (n=138) compared to before (n=98). Rates of vasectomies pre- and post- Dobbs were organized by age quartiles (<33.20, 33.20-36.65, 36.66-40.59, ≥40.60). In the “No Child” group, men with ages <33.2 (p=0.0137) and ages 33.2-36.65 (p=0.0394) had significant increases in frequency of vasectomy after the court decision. Conclusions Our data demonstrates that in the wake of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022), the number of vasectomies among men with no children significantly increased after the court decision. There were significant increases in the number of vasectomies within different age groups of men without children following the decision. Future aims of this study will seek to create statistical models to determine the underlying reasons that influenced the observed change in frequency of vasectomies following the court decision in men without children. Disclosure No.