Professor Anu Manchikanti Gómez has played a central role in developing a groundbreaking new public health metric to measure contraceptive need in the United States. In partnership with the Guttmacher Institute and the Coalition to Expand Contraceptive Access, Dr. Gómez helped design a person-centered measure that estimates the number of individuals with a self-defined need for contraceptive services, marking a shift from traditional metrics that focused primarily on assumed pregnancy risk.
The updated metric reflects individuals’ actual contraceptive use or expressed desire for contraception and offers more accurate insights into gaps in care. Initial estimates for 2023 indicate that about 51.9 million women of reproductive age had a self-defined need for contraceptive care, with 21.5 million likely needing public support to meet that need.