A Reality Check for Reproductive Rights

In 2023, polling by Americans for Contraception found that the right to use birth control was resoundingly popular: 90% of Americans supported it. But most didn’t believe it could ever be taken away.

In fact, it could be. The right to use basic birth control is not protected in federal law — it rests on Supreme Court precedent, much like abortion rights once did. When the court overturned Roe v. Wade, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that the court should also “reconsider” the ruling establishing the right to birth control. More than a dozen states have proposed legislation threatening access to birth control, often by reclassifying IUDs as “abortifacients.” The Heritage Foundation, heavily involved in staffing the new Trump administration, has pushed for “returning the danger to sex” by curtailing access to birth control.

Americans for Contraception needed to make the urgency clear and inspire people to advocate for legislation to protect the right to birth control. They turned to Trilogy to do it.

Fighting Misinformation, Advancing Legislation

We knew short-form video platforms would be an important avenue for educating people on threats to birth control. But we underestimated the level of disinformation we would be up against. Anti-science narratives about IUDs and the pill were proliferating on TikTok and Instagram. To fight back, we partnered with content creators who had spent years building trust with millennial and Gen Z audiences. Apolitical lifestyle creators like Atiana De La Hoya helped validate the safety and effectiveness of birth control — not just for preventing pregnancy but also for managing health conditions like endometriosis, and perimenopause. We brought men into the conversation, too, through creators like Tyson Wong and Brent Pella, and reached religious Americans through pastors, moms, and other trusted messengers.

While our creators helped take back the narrative about birth control on social media, Trilogy ran highly targeted texting campaigns in state legislative districts to protect the right to birth control in law. In Nevada, we drove thousands of constituents to send letters to their representatives in support of the Right to Contraception Act. Both Republican lawmakers we targeted joined Democrats in voting yes, sending the bipartisan bill to Governor Lombardo’s desk. We executed a similar strategy to build support for Virginia’s Right to Contraception Act. In both Nevada and Virginia, when the Republican governors vetoed these bipartisan bills, they were met with public outrage.

By early 2024, others in the reproductive rights space were seeing the effectiveness of our messaging. We organized coalitions and online joint actions to advocate for the national Right to Contraception Act, a bill to enshrine the right to birth control in federal law. Supporters sent more than 25,000 letters to congressional representatives through our joint action. Republican lawmakers defeated the bill, but we forced them to go on the record, revealing how out of step they were with the 90% of Americans who support birth control rights.

From #DitchThePill to “Pass This Bill”

Before Trilogy stepped in, misinformation about IUDs and the pill dominated conversations about birth control online. If a young woman searched for information about birth control on TikTok, most of the results included the hashtag #DitchThePill. Now, thanks to our social search-optimized program, when target demographics search for “birth control,” “contraception,” “fertility,” “IVF,” and similar terms, factual content from our campaign appears in the results.

Our work put a spotlight on birth control rights as a political issue, too. In 2022, when 195 House Republicans voted against the Right to Contraception Act, virtually no one talked about it. By 2024, our creator campaigns, paid ads, joint actions, and texting campaigns had raised awareness that birth control really was under threat. It became a major issue in 2024 political campaigns, especially after Republicans blocked the Right to Contraception Act in the Senate.Birth control rights are still not protected in federal law. But thanks to our work, awareness of the issue has never been higher. If elected officials keep attacking our right to basic birth control, Americans are ready to hold them accountable.