The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently cut an eight-person team responsible for the agency’s contraception guidelines, leaving many doctors fearing that women will lose access to crucial research and recommendations. The team aggregated best practices around contraception in a set of guidelines called U.S. Medical Eligibility Criteria for Contraceptive Use.
Doctors specializing in women’s health are devastated by the loss of this valuable resource. They rely on the guidelines “pretty much every time” they see patients for contraceptive care, including doctors like Dr. Andrea Braden and Dr. Deva Sharma, who specialize in treating patients with Sickle Cell disease.
The team developed an indispensable app that was downloaded 440,000 times to provide easy access to guidance on contraception. However, without the team, new medical updates will be difficult for doctors to keep up with, putting patients at risk.
“I don’t understand why they were eliminated,” says Dr. Braden. “This is a waste of valuable resources.”
The CDC’s guidelines are still accessible, but the team that updated them no longer exists. Doctors warn that without careful monitoring, the recommendations will soon be outdated.
For some patients and doctors dealing with specific conditions, conversations about contraception can be matters of life or death. The elimination of the CDC team has been described as detrimental to women’s health by Dr. Sharma and Dr. Braden.
The loss of this valuable resource is particularly concerning for Black women in the US, who have disproportionately high rates of maternal mortality. Doctors say that many women are now being denied access to reproductive healthcare due to strict abortion laws in some states.
The termination of the CDC team has left doctors feeling confused, angry, and sad. They urge policymakers to recognize the importance of evidence-based recommendations in women’s health and to protect this critical resource for future generations.
Source: https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/05/28/nx-s1-5413362/after-cdc-cuts-doctors-fear-women-will-lose-access-to-contraception-research