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Post-Roe family planning in Madison

This illustration is a collage of images of birth control, an IVF needle penetrating an egg, mid-century children, and a judge's gavel to symbolize the topics that will be covered in this series.
Illustration by Kay Reynolds.

On May 2, 2022, Politico released a leaked draft of the US Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, which overturned the abortion rights protections of Roe v. Wade. In the time between the leak and the final decision’s release on June 24, lawyers, healthcare providers, and governments pored over Wisconsin’s pre-Civil War state law banning abortions to decipher what it would mean in the 21st century. 

It also prompted questions about what it could mean for potential parents: whether they should have children, how many, and how. 

On August 4, Madison Minutes and Tone Madison asked readers in the Madison area to participate in a survey on how Dobbs has affected their family planning. We received over 200 responses from people with a variety of concerns about what lack of access to abortion could mean for their health, their partners’ health, and their family, and questions about how to move forward. 

Based on the responses we received, we are bringing you a series of stories unpacking the potential long-term impact of a decision that touches on some of the most private and important decisions in people’s lives.

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Credits

Edited by Christina Lieffring, Scott Gordon

Coordinated by Christina Lieffring, Oona Mackesey-Green, Hayley Sperling, Sam Hoisington, Scott Gordon

Written and reported by Christina Lieffring, Dayna Long, Holly Marley-Henschen, Hayley Sperling

Survey developed by Sam Hoisington, Christina Lieffring, Oona Mackesey-Green, Hayley Sperling

Survey distributed by Madison Minutes and Tone Madison

Illustrations by Kay Reynolds

Charts by Sam Hoisington

The “Post-Roe family planning in Madison” series is supported in part by a grant from Indiegraf.

Special thanks to Dorothea Salo of the UW-Madison iSchool for providing digital security advice.

You can support independent journalism in Madison by donating to Tone Madison and becoming a Madison Minutes member.

Read the full series
This illustration is a collage of images of birth control, an IVF needle penetrating an egg, mid-century children, and a judge's gavel to symbolize the topics that will be covered in this series.
Tone Madison and Madison Minutes win a LION Local Journalism Award for Dobbs series
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Misc
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October 4, 2023
“Post-Roe Family Planning in Madison” received the Collaboration of the Year Award in the Micro/Small Revenue Tier.
This composite illustration combines a photo from a trans rights rally, an inverted hospital building, and two men, one of whom is throwing a faded out child into the air, illustrating the precarity of LGBTQ+ families, rights and healthcare post-Roe.
Queer people in Madison adapt to renewed threats in a post-Roe world
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Post-Roe family planning in Madison
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May 18, 2023
The Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling has rippling effects across the LGBTQ+ community.
The graphic shows a faint hand looming over a crystal ball with a microscope slide of an egg, expressing the unpredictability of fertility treatment post-Roe v. Wade being overturned.
Fertility care in Wisconsin faces worrisome unknowns in the wake of Dobbs
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Post-Roe family planning in Madison
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May 16, 2023
In vitro fertilization is still legal, but patients and providers are bracing for long-term legal implications.
A graphic shows on the left a intrauterine device with its winged top cut to evoke the clipping of fallopian tubes in a tubal ligation. On the right, a photo of oral contraceptives.
Contraception has a new weight post-Roe in Madison
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Post-Roe family planning in Madison
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May 11, 2023
People with uteruses and the organizations that support them are putting up a fight against unwanted health outcomes.
A female torso is divided in half vertically, one side dressed as Lady Justice holding scales weighing a female figure and a set of children's blocks against the US Supreme Court building. The other half of the torso is holding a baby. A cesarian scar crosses the lower torso on both sides of the vertical divide.
The view from a best-case pregnancy
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Post-Roe family planning in Madison
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May 9, 2023
One Madison woman’s experience in the shadow of the Dobbs decision.
A graphic shows a photo of a mid-century family with one child whited out and an inverse version of that family, upside-down, with the mother whited out, illustrating how, after the Dobbs decision, families must choose whether the risk of pregnancy complications is worth having children.
How the Dobbs decision weighs on parents in Madison
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Post-Roe family planning in Madison
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May 4, 2023
People who already have kids are uncertain about having more in a state where abortion is illegal. 
A graphics collage showing an archival photo of nurses with newborns, a hand holding a packet of birth control bills and a bar graph.
What we learned from a survey about post-Roe family planning
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Post-Roe family planning in Madison
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May 2, 2023
The first in a joint series from Madison Minutes and Tone Madison examining the impact of the Dobbs ruling on local families.