Most health insurance plans in the United States must cover birth control at no cost to patients thanks to the Affordable Care Act. But that ACA provision remains one of its most contentious parts and has been the target of policy debates and lawsuits.
A new interactive dataset by researchers with CONVERGE at the University of Pittsburgh maps contraceptive policy trends from 2013 to 2025 across all 50 states and Washington, D.C. The data can help provide context for journalists looking at local and regional contraceptive policy landscapes.
What the dataset does
State policies can streamline and expand access to birth control. For example, laws codifying access to contraceptives extend coverage to state-regulated insurance plans and safeguard access to birth control if Medicaid requirements change. But only a minority of states have stepped up to codify contraceptive access to protect it from potentially changing federal policy.
Specifically, the University of Pittsburgh dataset examines three key policy areas that do one of the following:
- Require insurance plans to cover the full range of FDA-approved contraceptive methods with zero out-of-pocket costs (16 states and Washington, D.C.)
- Allow women to get more than a one-month supply of contraceptives at a single visit (29 states and Washington, D.C.)
- Permit pharmacists to prescribe and dispense contraceptives (33 states and Washington, D.C.)
For each state, the dataset tracks affected insurance types — Medicaid, commercial, and state employee plans. It also captures administrative details, including whether patients face prior authorization requirements, the maximum supply duration allowed, reimbursement rules, and the legal mechanisms allowing pharmacists to prescribe contraceptives.
Why it matters
Since the overturn of federal abortion protections in 2022, reproductive rights advocates worry contraceptives may be the next target. These fears are heightened by conservative groups and some state lawmakers invoking fetal personhood debates and attempting to conflate birth control with abortion.
For example, in 2024, Missouri lawmakers tried to block a bill that would allow women on private insurance to pick up an annual supply of birth control at one time arguing that contraceptives induce abortions. (Missouri’s governor signed a similar bill into law in July 2026.)
With expected federal cuts to Medicaid, Marian Jalenski, a professor of health policy at the University of Pittsburgh who worked on the dataset, said some state contraceptive provisions may become more important.
“I do think that possibly the extended supply — getting a one-year supply of contraception at a single fill — could be really important to people,” she said, “thinking about how patients or health care providers are trying to stem the harm that can come from loss of Medicaid coverage.”
One notable finding of the data, according to the researchers, is that abortion bans are not perfectly predictive of contraception policies, as several states with post-Dobbs abortion bans still maintain birth control access laws. This signals differing cultural perspectives on abortion and contraception, Jalenski said.
How reporters can use the data
Journalists can use this tool to track specific state policy trends over a 12-year period, which can be useful as a data point in their stories, or for regional context. They can request policy documentation and interactive maps to use in their stories and data journalism projects. The data can also serve as a starting point for reporting on access issues, health care coverage and financing, pharmacy practice and public awareness, Jalenski said.
“We look at the policy data about how many people are actually aware, or even chain pharmacies actually taking up the policy,” she said, referring to the policy that allows pharmacists to prescribe and dispense contraceptives.
“I will tell you that in our research conversations, there are certain large chain pharmacies that are very on board and want to do it, but it’s just hard to change behaviors and change the status quo.”
The researchers aim to update the data annually and are conducting further research on the outcomes of different state policies.
