AKRON, Ohio — With the overturning of Roe v. Wade, some women have spoken out about the obstacles they say they have faced trying to receive permanent birth control procedures.
Akron-based makeup artist and business owner Coco Miletti-Hall is one of those women.
Hall said between owning her own business and traveling with her husband, she has no desire to have children of her own and has never wanted to be a mother.
Over the years, the 32 year old said she has spoke with several doctors about different types of permanent sterilization.
“I’ve been refused by every single one of them,” Hall explained. “The main reasons they gave me were I was too young, I didn’t have any kids, I would probably change my mind later, and the one that really, really, made me mad was that I wasn’t married and what if my future partner or husband wanted to have kids?”
Dr. Kavita Arora, chair for the national ethics committee for American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, said doctors should talk with their patients about all of the risks of permanent sterilization, but should never discourage them.
“Doctors shouldn’t impose artificial thresholds based on your age or the number of children you have, but rather try to understand where you are coming from and try to ensure that the decisions are made with full, informed consent so that there is no misinformation, there is no disinformation,” Arora said. “Try to assess whether this is a long-held belief or is this something that is more of a short-term thought. Then, with good informed consent and shared decision making, uphold and honor those wishes.”
Hall said her personal experiences combined with the overturning of Roe v. Wade have inspired her to attend her first protest for reproductive rights.
She said she hopes by making her voice heard, she will send a message to doctors and politicians.
“If I have ever been affected by anything, it’s by the overturn of Roe v. Wade, and I just want to show up,” Hall said. “It’s not like you can just go request your tubes to be tied or removed and you just get to do it. You have to sign things if they even allow you to do it because of your age, marital status and whether you have kids or not, and I think this is something that needs to change and not be the norm.”
Arora said the numbers are not in yet, but she has personally interacted with more patients inquiring about tubal ligation.
“I think it is gonna be a while until we have good, high-quality data regarding the trends, but anecdotally, absolutely. I have patients coming to our office and procedure area saying that they were always on the edge of whether they wanted permanent contraception or not, but that Dobbs pushed them over the edge,” Arora said. “The running narrative is that they want autonomy, they want to say what happens to their bodies and to not have that externally dictated by laws or politicians.”
Hall said she will continue to pursue permanent sterilization.
“We don’t have full rights to our lives or our bodies, and it’s 2022,” Hall said. “It’s far past time for us to have freedom to do what we want, to choose what we want to do and how we want to live.”
