The 'New Era' in the Politics of Birth Control

The Department of Health and Human Services recently released new guidance that prioritizes childbirth over contraception. Mary Ziegler, UC Davis law professor and the author of Roe: The History of a National Obsession (Yale University Press, 2023) and Personhood: The New Civil War over Reproduction (Yale University Press, 2025), explains what's in the guidance and why she believes that the Trump administration is launching the most serious effort in decades to curb contraception. Photo: Birth control pills and pregnancy tests sit on a pharmacy shelf. (Credit: Sarahmirk/Wikimedia Commons BY CC 4.0)