It's the Brian Lairn Show on WNYC.

I'm producer Amina Serna filling in for Brian today.

Good morning again, everyone.

Earlier this month, the Department of Health and Human Services

released new guidance that would overhaul the Title X Family Planning Program. The 70-page

document notably makes only passing mention of contraceptives like the birth control pill,

stating that the pill is overprescribed, has negative side effects, and is part of a

broader, quote, overreliance on pharmaceutical and surgical treatments. Instead, the guidance calls for

so-called natural family planning, like period tracking and other forms of fertility awareness.

Medical experts say those have far higher failure rates than hormonal birth control.

This guidance goes out to clinics around the country that provide birth control and other sexual health services to millions of low-income people.

That's according to Politico.

And the changes could take effect when those clinics reapply for funding in January

2027.

While the American public is almost evenly split on its views on abortion, according to a

Pew Research poll from March, nearly all American adults surveyed, that's 91%, think using contraceptives to

prevent pregnancy is morally permissible. That's their framing. Birth control has historically

held broad bipartisan support, but our next guest writes that the Trump administration is

currently launching the most serious effort in decades to curb access to contraception.

Mary Ziegler is a law professor at UC Davis and the author of several books, including Roe, the History of a National Obsession, and Personhood, the New Civil War Over Reproduction.

Her latest op-ed in Politico is titled,

Trump is going after birth control, here's why.

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