- Wisp, an online pharmacy, said sales of birth control surged after Donald Trump’s election win.
- Wisp’s CEO told BI that women were “taking action” amid future uncertainty.
- Trump has offered mixed messages about his stance on a national abortion ban.
Wisp, an online pharmacy focused on sexual and reproductive health, says sales of birth control and emergency contraception have surged in the United States in the last week.
The company says that’s because women are stockpiling reproductive healthcare products now that Donald Trump is headed back to the White House.
Wisp, which serves over 1.2 million patients nationwide, reported a 1,000% increase in emergency contraception purchases from November 5 to November 6. Wisp CEO Monica Cepak told Business Insider that women are “taking action as they navigate the uncertainty of these next few years.”
“This data indicates to us that women are really scared and are using this moment in time to take back agency over their reproductive rights by stockpiling things like emergency contraception and investing in preventive reproductive health,” Cepak said.
In his first term, Trump put three conservative justices on the Supreme Court, which then overturned Roe v. Wade. The decision undid nationwide abortion protections and allowed 13 states to pass laws that effectively banned abortion.
Earlier this year, Trump took credit for ending the decadeslong precedent of legalized abortion nationwide. “I did it, and I’m proud to have done it,” he said. “Nobody else was going to get that done but me, and we did it, and we did something that was a miracle.”
In the 24 hours after Election Day, Wisp said it saw a 1,650% increase in new patients purchasing emergency contraception. There was a 600% increase in medication abortion sales and a 50% increase in birth control sales.
Overall, Wisp’s reproductive health sales (of emergency contraception, birth control, and medication abortion products) doubled compared to the week prior to the election, the company told Business Insider.
“We expect that momentum to sustain over the next few weeks and months,” Cepak said.
The purchases came from women in both anti-abortion states as well as states with widespread access to reproductive healthcare. Emergency contraception purchases surged in Texas, Indiana, and Oklahoma, where there are strict restrictions, but sales also increased in states like California and New York.
“Despite being states where reproductive rights are fully protected, we’re seeing women take precautionary measures as the future remains uncertain,” Wisp said in a statement.
Amy Hagstrom Miller, the founder of Whole Woman’s Health, which operates abortion clinics in multiple states, said her organization is also seeing a surge in demand for contraceptive and abortion medication.
“We are seeing an increased demand for emergency contraception, long-acting contraception, advanced provision of medication abortion, and we are seeing online telemed provision of these things, which I think has really reached a lot of people in states where abortion is banned,” Hagstrom Miller said.
The Democrats saw the abortion issue as a strength after performing well in the 2022 midterms. As a result, the Trump campaign worked to distance itself from the issue during the presidential election. In March, he floated a national ban at about 16 weeks of gestation. A month later, he said he wouldn’t sign a national abortion ban.
At a press panel on Thursday for Abortion Access Now, a national coalition advocating for abortion rights, representatives from different reproductive rights organizations reflected on the election results and the path forward.
“Trump ran from his record and lied about his position on abortion. Even Trump knows how unpopular abortion bans are,” Kimberly Inez McGuire, the executive director of URGE: Unite for Reproductive & Gender Equity, said at the panel. “We know that people in this country bristle at the thought of politicians interfering with abortion decisions.”
On Election Day, voters turned out in favor of abortion rights in 7 out of 10 states that had it on the ballot.
“Abortion was on the ballot, abortion won, but the election and the results, particularly for the White House, make it really clear that the path for reproductive freedom will continue to be a long one,” Mini Timmaraju, the president and CEO of Reproductive Freedom for All, said at the panel. “It won’t be won or lost in a single election.”
