National reproductive health care resource website goes dark

When Elizabeth Ringstad found out that the national reproductive health care resource website www.reproductiverights.gov had been taken down, she felt fear.

“I feel like taking down such a major research tool for women is kind of removing our ability to educate ourselves on our bodies and our rights,” said Ringstad, 26, of Pittsburgh’s South Side. “I just feel like it’s another way to try and control women.”

The government website was launched in 2022 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as part of a public awareness campaign. The site went dark the evening of President Donald Trump’s inauguration this week, CBS News reported.

“I think it signifies that the government is moving away from wanting the public to be educated,” Ringstad said. “We want to be able to look up to our government and be able to be provided information on things and to be able to take it as truth, but I think this signifies that we can’t trust the government.”

Dr. Ashlee Weaver, chief OB-GYN resident at Allegheny Health Network’s West Penn Hospital, said the website contained useful and “medically accurate” information about patients’ right to access reproductive care.

Some of the information that used to be available on the site, which is still down, included:

• Contraception options
• Abortion care via medication and procedures
• Rights when accessing emergency care
• Preventative health services
• Cervical screenings
• Breast screenings
• STI and HIV testing
• Insurance plans
• Prenatal care
• Breastfeeding services and supplies

Weaver also said the site included links to abortion care locations.

“My main reaction was disappointment,” she said, after finding out the site was gone through friends’ posts on social media. “I really strongly feel that my patents deserve access to medically accurate information that’s based on science.”

A lot of people were posting online about reproductiverights.gov being taken down, according to Weaver. She hasn’t heard anything directly from her patients.

“A lot of us who work within the reproductive health space are really aware that this information is no longer public,” she said.

Ringstad said she found out the website had been taken down by scrolling through Facebook on Thursday. One of her friends had shared a link about the development.

Weaver said the website was a useful avenue for people to be able to look up questions and answers.

“There’s a lot of misinformation out there — especially about reproductive health,” she said. “It’s really important that anyone has access to medically accurate information that’s based on science.”

Alternative resources

Western Pennsylvania residents should feel comfortable talking about reproductive health care information and concerns with their doctor, according to Weaver.

“A lot of these decisions should really be private between a patient and their doctor,” she said.

Websites that offer information similar to what reproductive.gov did include the following, Weaver said:

• bedsider.org for contraception information
• prochoice.org or ineedana.com for information about abortion

Anyone who doesn’t have access to immediate health care should visit those sites, she said, and local resources may be different based on insurance provider.

And for Pennsylvanians specifically, Gov. Josh Shapiro launched a website for reproductive health care resources in the state titled Freedom to Choose. It was created in 2023 after a judge in the Northern District of Texas reversed the Federal Drug Administration’s decades-long approval of an abortion pill regimen consisting of mifepristone followed by misoprostol, which has been used for more than 20 years, the governor’s office said.

The easiest way to consult an OB-GYN is by calling and making an appointment, according to Weaver.

“We’re pretty accessible,” she said. “We have a lot of different places in the city that you can go for care to have open and honest communication with your doctor.”

Ringstad, who voted against Trump in the presidential election, said it’s hard for her to have any hope at all for the state of reproductive health care in the United States right now.