Volunteers Marian Starkey, right, and Sheera LaBelle let people into the building that houses the Planned Parenthood clinic in Portland in September 2022. Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer

Planned Parenthood of Northern New England says requests for long-acting reversible contraceptives have nearly doubled at its clinics since Donald Trump won the presidency and Republicans gained control of Congress.

In the week after the election, Planned Parenthood of Northern New England received 215 appointment requests for long-acting contraceptives, including birth control implants and intrauterine devices, at its clinics in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, almost twice as many as its normal weekly bookings of 111. In Maine, bookings went from an average of 26 weekly appointments to 48 in the week after the election.

While President-elect Donald Trump has said he would not support a national abortion plan, reproductive rights advocates have doubted he would refuse to sign such a bill.

Advocates have also raised concerns that the Trump administration will restrict access to reproductive health services and could try to use a 19th century law – the Comstock Act – to forbid shipping mifepristone, the abortion pill, across state lines – a claim Trump denied during the campaign.

Abortion rights advocates also warned that a Trump administration could make it more difficult to access contraceptives.

Almost all Republican politicians are anti-abortion, and starting in January Republicans will control all levers of the federal government, with the presidency, both houses of Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority.

Senate Republicans this spring blocked a bill that would have enshrined a federal right to contraception. U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, was one of two Republicans to vote in favor of the bill, the other being U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska.

Nicole Clegg, CEO of Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, said in a statement that “our patients are worried.”

“They are concerned that they may not be able to access the care they need or make the best choices for their health,” Clegg said. “Election outcomes shouldn’t have this type of impact on people’s lives. People shouldn’t wake up one morning and find that getting the method of birth control they want or need is now out of their hands. These are personal decisions and shouldn’t be subject to political whims.”

Clegg, in an interview with the Press Herald, said there are a host of reasons why patients are choosing to get long-acting contraceptives before the Trump administration takes over on Jan. 20, including cost. The Affordable Care Act mandates that most birth control be covered in insurance plans without any out-of-pocket costs. Even if the ACA is not repealed, Congress could pass laws reversing ACA rules, requiring that patients pay for contraception.

Usha Ranji, associate director of women’s health policy for KFF, a national health policy think tank, told the Press Herald that free or nearly-free contraceptive care could get the axe during the second Trump presidency.

Ranji said a lawsuit against the federal government, Braidwood Management vs. Becerra, takes aim at preventive services covered under the ACA, including contraception.

“The Trump Administration may not defend the case and Project 2025 specifically criticizes (the federal Health Resources and Services Administration), and calls for them to reissue new recommendations, so it’s possible that the contraceptive coverage requirement could be at risk going forward,” Ranji said. Project 2025 is a plan put forward by Trump advisers for a second Trump administration, although Trump disavowed Project 2025 during the fall campaign.

Clegg said another worry is that federal cuts to Planned Parenthood could result in reduced services at the clinics.

“For many patients, PPNNE is their provider and what if (the Trump administration) defunded my provider?” Clegg said.

Maine Family Planning, Maine’s other abortion provider, did not have statistics on its appointment requests available on Thursday afternoon, officials said.

The first Trump administration, which ran from 2017-2020, instituted a gag order on what abortion clinics could say about abortion care to their patients, resulting in a cut in federal funding to Planned Parenthood.

The Supreme Court in 2022 reversed Roe v. Wade, leaving decisions about whether abortion is legal up to the states. While Maine passed laws increasing access to abortion, 21 states either banned abortion outright or placed strict restrictions on abortion care.

In addition to the interest in long-acting contraceptives, the number of vasectomy consultations, 26 in the first two weeks of November, had already surpassed Planned Parenthood of Northern New England’s monthly average of 23.

Also, Planned Parenthood has experienced an increase in patients reaching out about the potential for reduced access to gender-affirming care during the Trump administration, although there was no data released about an increase in these concerns.