By Sarah Owermohle, MJ Lee, Andrew Seger
Updated Jan 14, 2026, 12:26 PM ET
PUBLISHED Jan 14, 2026, 6:01 AM ET
Shifting politics of the pill
Kristan Hawkins is not what you might call a unifying figure. The founder and leader of Students for Life of America, a grassroots anti-abortion network, Hawkins travels to college campuses for Charlie Kirk-style debates about abortion and birth control.
She rarely shifts students’ opinions on abortion, she admits — Hawkins says she has about a 10% “mind change rate,” based on her post-talk polls – but over the past few years, she has noticed a trend.
“Talking with students, (both) pro-life and pro-choice … when I talk about contraception, it’s probably one of the easiest things I can get agreement on in an audience,” Hawkins said. “Even the women who have probably come to protest me.”
Young women with very different backgrounds and political loyalties are finding common ground on the topic of hormonal birth control — pills, intrauterine devices and hormonal implants — and whether they want to use it.
CNN spoke to more than two dozen women, doctors and experts from different parts of the country who say that for a growing number, the answer is no.
Birth control pills and intrauterine devices, which had sharply increased in popularity over the past two decades, were still among the most commonly used contraception methods in the US as recently as 2022, according to data analyzed by the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive health research organization. Other options include condom use, nonhormonal devices and surgical interventions.
Birth control pills and IUDs are some of the most effective forms of birth control, and the pill is also one of the most accessible. These methods are primarily used to prevent unwanted pregnancies, but hormonal contraceptives have also been prescribed to help with gynecological conditions, and the pill, in particular, for skin care issues. The pill has also been credited with helping drive teen pregnancy rates to historic lows.
Yet whether it’s conservatives who have traditionally opposed birth control for religious reasons or left-leaning women who are questioning medical orthodoxies, skepticism over hormonal birth control is becoming a shared talking point among some women, especially in online forums focused on health and wellness.
Many hormonal birth control detractors argue that the divide in attitudes tends to be more generational rather than ideological. Almost 1 in 4 (22%) women ages 18 to 25 said in a 2024 KFF survey that they were using menstrual tracking to prevent pregnancy, which the health policy nonprofit said could reflect growing interest in nonhormonal methods that are discussed extensively on social media outlets targeting young people.
The issue is gaining political salience under President Donald Trump’s second administration, buoyed by the momentum of the “Make America Healthy Again” movement and its leader, US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
After Kennedy married MAHA’s priorities to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement in his second term, the administration has made some dramatic moves that have alarmed health professionals, including changing vaccine schedules and amplifying an unproven link between autism and pregnant women’s use of Tylenol. Now, skepticism of the pharmaceutical industry has also accelerated debates around hormonal contraception.
Dr. Casey Means, a longtime Kennedy ally and Trump’s pick for surgeon general, has claimed that birth control represents a “disrespect for life” and carries “horrifying health risks” for women. Although side effects vary depending on the method, the US Food and Drug Administration lists mood swings, skin problems, pain and rarer risks of ovarian cysts and ectopic pregnancies. Some hormonal birth control can be prescribed to help prevent ovarian cysts.
Dr. Mariam Gomaa, OBGYN associated with John Hopkins Medical. (Andrew Smith/CNN)
Most side effects are mild and temporary, fading “within two to three months as the body adjusts,” said Dr. Mariam Gomaa, a board-certified obstetrician and gynecologist affiliated with Johns Hopkins University.
On popular podcasts, some MAHA influencers have suggested that birth control can affect future fertility, a false theory universally rejected by the scientific community but seizing on an anxiety among young women. (The scientific consensus is that hormonal contraception does not have a long-term effect on fertility and can actually assist with fertility care, according to the American Society of Reproductive Medicine.)
At the same time, there is a political conversation that has been placing greater emphasis on conversations about fertility, starting families and having more “Trump babies.”
“Birth control is poison,” Katie Miller, a former Trump spokesperson and now podcaster who does not have a medical background, told CNN last year. “The most feminist thing you can do for yourself is not take birth control.”
Health professionals who spoke to CNN warn that a proliferation of misinformation and unfounded theories about the harmful effects of hormonal contraceptives appear to be a major factor fueling those concerns.
“Unfortunately, some of that misinformation guides patients to medications or supplements that are not regulated and can be, frankly, unsafe,” Gomaa said. “It can lead patients to be dissuaded from seeking treatment for things like (polycystic ovary syndrome) or endometriosis, a lot of which we use hormonal contraceptives for.”
Dr. Mariam Gomaa, OBGYN associated with John Hopkins Medical. (Andrew Smith/CNN)
Beyond the medical concerns, some see these attitudes reshaping the narrative on contraceptive methods like the birth control pill, which for decades had been heralded a symbol of women’s liberation and reproductive agency.
By 2022, Clark had Dr. Leah Gordon, a self-described natural fertility doctor and “IVF mama,” on her podcast to talk about whether methods like intrauterine devices factored into infertility issues.
At the time, Clark — who now helms “Cultural Apothecary,” a pop culture podcast focused on health and wellness with a MAHA perspective — said she was seeing only “feminist, liberal women who were raising concerns” about how these could negatively affect women’s bodies.
Clark has emerged as one of the most prominent conservative advocates of alternatives to hormonal contraceptives.
She has publicly railed against the wide use of birth control pills, arguing that millennial women were casually prescribed the medications as a “one-size-fits-all Band-Aid” to address everything from period cramps to acne, with little discussion about side effects.
Stephanie Bocek in her kitchen. (Jeremy Moorhead/CNN)
Stephanie Bocek, a mother of two, echoed that sentiment when speaking to CNN from her farm in rural Virginia, where she stocks her kitchen with unpasteurized milk, raises chickens and guinea fowl and tends to her 3,000-square-foot vegetable garden on a typical day.
“I was at the Naval Academy, and I was prescribed birth control as a solution for like women’s health issues to manage things, you know, just like PMS symptoms in regular periods,” she recalled, saying she then developed side effects like a loss of her usual sense of optimism.
It was only recently, Bocek added, that through her own research, she connected the dots to taking birth control pills and came to regret her decision.
“When I was young, I would have never linked the two. And it was only in a decade later, researching and looking back, and realizing I never suffered from those issues when I wasn’t on it,” she said.
Some women, like Bocek, say their doctors rarely discuss the side effects of hormonal birth control, even as they are quick to prescribe it. Numerous studies over the years have confirmed that doctors often dismiss women’s medical concerns, leading to avoidable misdiagnoses and mistrust.
Stephanie Bocek pours a glass of unpasteurized milk in her kitchen. (CNN)
Brittany Hugoboom, founder of the conservative women’s publication Evie — which has published numerous articles critical of hormonal birth control — and a menstrual cycle tracking app called 28, says she started to notice an uptick in women turning away from hormonal birth control around 2019, before an “exodus” these past few years as more women shared their stories of weight gain, low libido, mood changes and depression.
Aversion to hormonal birth control was considered a “crunchy liberal” position at the time, Hugoboom said. But as more women, including celebrities, told their stories on social media, there was this “bonding over the shared experience of being dismissed — or even gaslighted — by their own doctors,” she said.
“Women deserve more options when it comes to their bodies, and they shouldn’t be shamed for choosing noninvasive, hormone-free methods that can be just as effective when used correctly,” she said.
While Hugoboom disputes that questioning birth control is a “right-wing” stance, women’s discussion of hormonal contraception has taken on a new tinge that dovetails with conservative priorities. In Washington, Trump has debuted strategies, including easier access to fertility treatments and childhood bank accounts, to propel a US baby boom. Meanwhile, social media has seen the steady but now ubiquitous rise of “tradwife” content from young influencers who tout taking on the traditional role of a stay-at-home mother.
Some women who have never taken them are more reluctant to start, while others currently taking a form of hormonal birth control are increasingly expressing a desire to stop and explore alternative options.
Hill, whose books Clark referenced, is a leading voice in educating women about the significant role that sex hormones play in shaping their bodies.
She says she sees the growing suspicion about hormonal birth control as just one piece of a broader, across-the-board apprehension about prescription drugs. And while Hill is in favor of healthy skepticism about some of the ingrained, conventional practices in medicine — like what she sees as the overprescribing of antibiotics — she said she finds the growing number of patients who seem downright afraid of birth control pills worrisome.
“Just this idea that, unilaterally, it’s bad — I don’t think it’s appropriate, because it’s a lot more nuanced than that,” Hill said. “So that is something that concerns me.”
Hill’s book argues that hormonal contraception does far more than prevent pregnancy and can actually shape people’s moods, emotional processing and even romantic preferences. But although Hill cites studies linking hormonal birth control to anxiety and depression, she ultimately advocates for more research and choices.
Dr. Franziska Haydanek, an ob/gyn who practices in western New York, found social media fame by correcting false information about women’s health online.
According to the 2024 KFF survey, 1 in 7 women ages 18 to 25 said they made or thought about making a change to their contraceptive use after seeing the subject discussed on social media.
Haydanek — best known as “Dr. Fran” to her almost 700,000 TikTok followers — says there’s no doubt in her mind that the growing MAHA movement has played a significant role in casting doubts about the safety of hormonal birth control.
“I very much welcome people accessing evidence-based information when it comes to (medical decisions),” she said. “The issue, of course, is when that is not evidence-based. And that’s where I see some influencers from the MAHA movement, which typically has not always been based in evidence, which is frustrating.”
Health professionals said patients who have questions or concerns about birth control should speak to their doctors about risks, benefits and side effects, as everyone’s case is different.
“Mark my words. MAHA is the most powerful political capital that the GOP has going into the midterms,” she said. “If these people running do not speak about MAHA and say that they are in support of MAHA, they will hemorrhage votes, and we will hand the midterms to the left.”
Hawkins, the activist, says she is well aware that most of the young women who agree with her on contraception don’t find much other common ground with anti-abortion advocates like her. But younger women are “willing to have the hard conversations” and are motivated by MAHA, she said.
“I mean, do you see them carrying their Stanley water bottles because they don’t want plastic water bottles?” she said. “Of course, they’re anti- putting hormones in their food and the pills that they’re taking.”
Source (Archive)
Updated Jan 14, 2026, 12:26 PM ET
PUBLISHED Jan 14, 2026, 6:01 AM ET
Shifting politics of the pill
Kristan Hawkins is not what you might call a unifying figure. The founder and leader of Students for Life of America, a grassroots anti-abortion network, Hawkins travels to college campuses for Charlie Kirk-style debates about abortion and birth control.
She rarely shifts students’ opinions on abortion, she admits — Hawkins says she has about a 10% “mind change rate,” based on her post-talk polls – but over the past few years, she has noticed a trend.
“Talking with students, (both) pro-life and pro-choice … when I talk about contraception, it’s probably one of the easiest things I can get agreement on in an audience,” Hawkins said. “Even the women who have probably come to protest me.”
Young women with very different backgrounds and political loyalties are finding common ground on the topic of hormonal birth control — pills, intrauterine devices and hormonal implants — and whether they want to use it.
CNN spoke to more than two dozen women, doctors and experts from different parts of the country who say that for a growing number, the answer is no.
Birth control pills and intrauterine devices, which had sharply increased in popularity over the past two decades, were still among the most commonly used contraception methods in the US as recently as 2022, according to data analyzed by the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive health research organization. Other options include condom use, nonhormonal devices and surgical interventions.
Birth control pills and IUDs are some of the most effective forms of birth control, and the pill is also one of the most accessible. These methods are primarily used to prevent unwanted pregnancies, but hormonal contraceptives have also been prescribed to help with gynecological conditions, and the pill, in particular, for skin care issues. The pill has also been credited with helping drive teen pregnancy rates to historic lows.
Yet whether it’s conservatives who have traditionally opposed birth control for religious reasons or left-leaning women who are questioning medical orthodoxies, skepticism over hormonal birth control is becoming a shared talking point among some women, especially in online forums focused on health and wellness.
Many hormonal birth control detractors argue that the divide in attitudes tends to be more generational rather than ideological. Almost 1 in 4 (22%) women ages 18 to 25 said in a 2024 KFF survey that they were using menstrual tracking to prevent pregnancy, which the health policy nonprofit said could reflect growing interest in nonhormonal methods that are discussed extensively on social media outlets targeting young people.
The issue is gaining political salience under President Donald Trump’s second administration, buoyed by the momentum of the “Make America Healthy Again” movement and its leader, US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
After Kennedy married MAHA’s priorities to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement in his second term, the administration has made some dramatic moves that have alarmed health professionals, including changing vaccine schedules and amplifying an unproven link between autism and pregnant women’s use of Tylenol. Now, skepticism of the pharmaceutical industry has also accelerated debates around hormonal contraception.
Dr. Casey Means, a longtime Kennedy ally and Trump’s pick for surgeon general, has claimed that birth control represents a “disrespect for life” and carries “horrifying health risks” for women. Although side effects vary depending on the method, the US Food and Drug Administration lists mood swings, skin problems, pain and rarer risks of ovarian cysts and ectopic pregnancies. Some hormonal birth control can be prescribed to help prevent ovarian cysts.
Dr. Mariam Gomaa, OBGYN associated with John Hopkins Medical. (Andrew Smith/CNN)
Most side effects are mild and temporary, fading “within two to three months as the body adjusts,” said Dr. Mariam Gomaa, a board-certified obstetrician and gynecologist affiliated with Johns Hopkins University.
On popular podcasts, some MAHA influencers have suggested that birth control can affect future fertility, a false theory universally rejected by the scientific community but seizing on an anxiety among young women. (The scientific consensus is that hormonal contraception does not have a long-term effect on fertility and can actually assist with fertility care, according to the American Society of Reproductive Medicine.)
At the same time, there is a political conversation that has been placing greater emphasis on conversations about fertility, starting families and having more “Trump babies.”
“Birth control is poison,” Katie Miller, a former Trump spokesperson and now podcaster who does not have a medical background, told CNN last year. “The most feminist thing you can do for yourself is not take birth control.”
Health professionals who spoke to CNN warn that a proliferation of misinformation and unfounded theories about the harmful effects of hormonal contraceptives appear to be a major factor fueling those concerns.
“Unfortunately, some of that misinformation guides patients to medications or supplements that are not regulated and can be, frankly, unsafe,” Gomaa said. “It can lead patients to be dissuaded from seeking treatment for things like (polycystic ovary syndrome) or endometriosis, a lot of which we use hormonal contraceptives for.”
Dr. Mariam Gomaa, OBGYN associated with John Hopkins Medical. (Andrew Smith/CNN)
Beyond the medical concerns, some see these attitudes reshaping the narrative on contraceptive methods like the birth control pill, which for decades had been heralded a symbol of women’s liberation and reproductive agency.
Skeptical voices
Alex Clark, a popular podcaster with the conservative media company Turning Point USA, said she began learning about hormonal birth control through documentaries and books that discussed the possible side effects, such as Dr. Sarah Hill’s “This Is Your Brain on Birth Control,” which gives a nuanced assessment of its risks and benefits.By 2022, Clark had Dr. Leah Gordon, a self-described natural fertility doctor and “IVF mama,” on her podcast to talk about whether methods like intrauterine devices factored into infertility issues.
At the time, Clark — who now helms “Cultural Apothecary,” a pop culture podcast focused on health and wellness with a MAHA perspective — said she was seeing only “feminist, liberal women who were raising concerns” about how these could negatively affect women’s bodies.
Clark has emerged as one of the most prominent conservative advocates of alternatives to hormonal contraceptives.
She has publicly railed against the wide use of birth control pills, arguing that millennial women were casually prescribed the medications as a “one-size-fits-all Band-Aid” to address everything from period cramps to acne, with little discussion about side effects.
Stephanie Bocek in her kitchen. (Jeremy Moorhead/CNN)
Stephanie Bocek, a mother of two, echoed that sentiment when speaking to CNN from her farm in rural Virginia, where she stocks her kitchen with unpasteurized milk, raises chickens and guinea fowl and tends to her 3,000-square-foot vegetable garden on a typical day.
“I was at the Naval Academy, and I was prescribed birth control as a solution for like women’s health issues to manage things, you know, just like PMS symptoms in regular periods,” she recalled, saying she then developed side effects like a loss of her usual sense of optimism.
It was only recently, Bocek added, that through her own research, she connected the dots to taking birth control pills and came to regret her decision.
“When I was young, I would have never linked the two. And it was only in a decade later, researching and looking back, and realizing I never suffered from those issues when I wasn’t on it,” she said.
Some women, like Bocek, say their doctors rarely discuss the side effects of hormonal birth control, even as they are quick to prescribe it. Numerous studies over the years have confirmed that doctors often dismiss women’s medical concerns, leading to avoidable misdiagnoses and mistrust.
Stephanie Bocek pours a glass of unpasteurized milk in her kitchen. (CNN)
Brittany Hugoboom, founder of the conservative women’s publication Evie — which has published numerous articles critical of hormonal birth control — and a menstrual cycle tracking app called 28, says she started to notice an uptick in women turning away from hormonal birth control around 2019, before an “exodus” these past few years as more women shared their stories of weight gain, low libido, mood changes and depression.
Aversion to hormonal birth control was considered a “crunchy liberal” position at the time, Hugoboom said. But as more women, including celebrities, told their stories on social media, there was this “bonding over the shared experience of being dismissed — or even gaslighted — by their own doctors,” she said.
“Women deserve more options when it comes to their bodies, and they shouldn’t be shamed for choosing noninvasive, hormone-free methods that can be just as effective when used correctly,” she said.
While Hugoboom disputes that questioning birth control is a “right-wing” stance, women’s discussion of hormonal contraception has taken on a new tinge that dovetails with conservative priorities. In Washington, Trump has debuted strategies, including easier access to fertility treatments and childhood bank accounts, to propel a US baby boom. Meanwhile, social media has seen the steady but now ubiquitous rise of “tradwife” content from young influencers who tout taking on the traditional role of a stay-at-home mother.
The shifting contraceptives conversation
More than a half-dozen women’s reproductive doctors told CNN that they have also seen a notable increase in patients expressing concerns about hormonal contraceptives, including the birth control pill.Some women who have never taken them are more reluctant to start, while others currently taking a form of hormonal birth control are increasingly expressing a desire to stop and explore alternative options.
Hill, whose books Clark referenced, is a leading voice in educating women about the significant role that sex hormones play in shaping their bodies.
She says she sees the growing suspicion about hormonal birth control as just one piece of a broader, across-the-board apprehension about prescription drugs. And while Hill is in favor of healthy skepticism about some of the ingrained, conventional practices in medicine — like what she sees as the overprescribing of antibiotics — she said she finds the growing number of patients who seem downright afraid of birth control pills worrisome.
“Just this idea that, unilaterally, it’s bad — I don’t think it’s appropriate, because it’s a lot more nuanced than that,” Hill said. “So that is something that concerns me.”
Hill’s book argues that hormonal contraception does far more than prevent pregnancy and can actually shape people’s moods, emotional processing and even romantic preferences. But although Hill cites studies linking hormonal birth control to anxiety and depression, she ultimately advocates for more research and choices.
Dr. Franziska Haydanek, an ob/gyn who practices in western New York, found social media fame by correcting false information about women’s health online.
According to the 2024 KFF survey, 1 in 7 women ages 18 to 25 said they made or thought about making a change to their contraceptive use after seeing the subject discussed on social media.
Haydanek — best known as “Dr. Fran” to her almost 700,000 TikTok followers — says there’s no doubt in her mind that the growing MAHA movement has played a significant role in casting doubts about the safety of hormonal birth control.
“I very much welcome people accessing evidence-based information when it comes to (medical decisions),” she said. “The issue, of course, is when that is not evidence-based. And that’s where I see some influencers from the MAHA movement, which typically has not always been based in evidence, which is frustrating.”
Health professionals said patients who have questions or concerns about birth control should speak to their doctors about risks, benefits and side effects, as everyone’s case is different.
The MAHA factor
Although Clark, the conservative podcaster, contends that rejecting hormonal birth control spans the political spectrum, she has a message for the Republican Party.“Mark my words. MAHA is the most powerful political capital that the GOP has going into the midterms,” she said. “If these people running do not speak about MAHA and say that they are in support of MAHA, they will hemorrhage votes, and we will hand the midterms to the left.”
Hawkins, the activist, says she is well aware that most of the young women who agree with her on contraception don’t find much other common ground with anti-abortion advocates like her. But younger women are “willing to have the hard conversations” and are motivated by MAHA, she said.
“I mean, do you see them carrying their Stanley water bottles because they don’t want plastic water bottles?” she said. “Of course, they’re anti- putting hormones in their food and the pills that they’re taking.”
Source (Archive)
optimistic that it might. And if it does, well, the trans kids movement got the final nail in the coffin.
