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The first thing I did Wednesday was think, well, punk music is poised to have a big comeback. Shortly thereafter, I started Googling IUDs.

That's an intrauterine device, a T-shaped object inserted into a uterus to prevent pregnancy. I wasn't the only one looking. If you'll indulge a wonkish moment: Google Trends showed Floridians searching "IUD" at peak levels as election returns rolled in. Most came from college town Gainesville. "Where to get an IUD," they typed. "Copper IUD near me." Searches for contraceptives shot up all over the country.

For a year or so, my doctor has been pushing me toward birth control, urgency in her eyes. Throughout my marriage, I have not been able to conceive. I started fertility treatments a few years back but stopped after a surgery rattled me. It turned out the clinic was not for me, but I stayed open to nature. Maybe, baby?

When I hit my 40s, though, my doctor said my age coupled with medications for other issues would compound risks. Perhaps a pregnancy would be fine. But if she needed to help me, needed to perform abortion care to save my life or remove a nonviable fetus, she feared she could not.

I felt the advice was a bit alarmist then, but I don't now. Florida's six-week abortion ban, upheld Tuesday despite 57% of voters attempting to enshrine reproductive rights in the state constitution, is one of the strictest in the country. Voters in seven states passed measures this week to protect abortion, but Florida has one of the highest amendment bars nationally. Arguably by political design, the ball could not get over the line.

Florida's six-week ban makes some exceptions for rape, incest and the life and health of the mother. But it also threatens a third-degree felony for a doctor flouting the law. Dangling hard prison time can have a chilling effect in a range of medical situations, delaying care with deadly consequences. Babies are suffering, too. Florida's infants died of birth defects at the highest rate in years following the state's previous 15-week abortion ban. With even harsher rules, what's to come?

Donald Trump won the presidency decisively. Curiously, Florida's abortion amendment performed better than Trump himself in some counties he won. That's screaming, isn't it? Many voters clearly aren't comfortable with how far backward reproductive rights have crashed, even if they like things about Trump's playbook.

Despite appointing the Supreme Court justices who ushered in the overturn of Roe v. Wade, Trump has gone out of his way to avoid discussing abortion. This week, he refused to say how he voted on Florida's measure, snapping at a reporter for asking. His policies have not been friendly to contraceptives. Trump swears he will not ban birth control, but he made access tougher in his first term, especially for poor and working people. His administration increased insurance opt-outs for employers and added restrictions to a federal family planning program. The Heritage Foundation, behind Project 2025, which is -- oh, geez, you know what that is by now -- wants to take restrictions even further.

So, back to Google. Back to "IUD near me." I'll be joining those legions of Googlers while we can still get what we need.

Mostly, I'm feeling defeated, exhausted by non-doctors presuming to know the internal monologue of everyone's uterus, moralizing health care and sowing harm with God's name in their mouths. I'm mournful that my own family plan will end so ingloriously, so ghoulishly, so wrapped in horrifying worst-case scenarios. I'm heartbroken for the many ways choice has been ripped from our hands under the cloak of freedom.

Anyone concerned with this nation's Puritanical moment is allowed to be tired, filled with malaise and overwhelm. But then, what's left? The only choice is to buckle in, to do what needs to be done. Get our wombs locked down if that's the most logical choice, and urge the men in our life to consider vasectomies. Store emergency contraceptives or hormone therapies in our fridges for friends who might need them. Support causes that buy women plane tickets and hotel rooms to get care outside of a state so openly hostile to our needs.

Head up. Shoulders back. Schedule appointment.

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Stephanie Hayes is a columnist at the Tampa Bay Times in Florida. Follow her at @stephhayes on X or @stephrhayes on Instagram.

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