Contraception

The Bixby Center works to ensure that people have access to all methods of contraception and support to use or not use contraception based on their preferences, needs and values. We are at the forefront of clinical and social science research to improve contraceptive options and services around the world.

Research to improve care and increase access

Training and tools to provide comprehensive, person-centered care

 

We cannot allow this tragic ruling to cause us to inflict more harm on the people who bear the brunt. This is a test of our commitment to autonomy and reproductive justice. We cannot and must not lose the essential progress we've made, even in the most dire of times.

Christine Dehlendorf, MD

responding to the Dobbs decision in MedPage Today

  • Beyond the Pill has trained more than 12,000 providers in topics including contraceptive counseling, implicit bias, emergency contraception. They offer free educational materials and clinical tools, used by clinics, hospitals, health departments, and schools.
  • The Person-Centered Reproductive Health Program developed decision support tools for patients deciding on contraception and people considering postpartum tubal sterilization.
  • Innovations for Choice and Autonomy created a framework to measure contraceptive agency, offering a tool for contraceptive programs around the world to center people’s ability to make and act on their own contraceptive choices.
  • The UCSF Fellowship in Complex Family Planning, founded by Phil Darney, MD, has trained experts in obstetrics and gynecology and family medicine that have gone on to study contraceptive access, counseling, use and development.

Informing policy

  • Bixby Center research showed that providing a year’s worth of birth control pills resulted in more people sticking with the method over time, and health systems and governments around the country have made this option available.
  • Bixby members advocated for emergency contraception and daily birth control pills to be available over the counter, affordable, and accessible.