Per a court order, HHS is required to restore this website as of 11:59PM ET, February 11, 2025. Any information on this page promoting gender ideology is extremely inaccurate and disconnected from the immutable biological reality that there are two sexes, male and female. The Trump Administration rejects gender ideology and condemns the harms it causes to children, by promoting their chemical and surgical mutilation, and to women, by depriving them of their dignity, safety, well-being, and opportunities. This page does not reflect biological reality and therefore the Administration and this Department rejects it.

CDC Contraceptive Guidance for Health Care Providers

At a glance

This page provides a brief overview of the 2024 U.S. Medical Eligibility Criteria for Contraceptive Use (U.S. MEC), the 2024 U.S. Selected Practice Recommendations for Contraceptive Use (U.S. SPR), and links to the latest guidance documents.

U.S. MEC and U.S. SPR logos

CDC contraceptive guidance for health care providers

The goals of these recommendations are to remove unnecessary medical barriers to accessing and using contraception and to support providing person-centered contraceptive counseling and services in a noncoercive manner.

The 2024 U.S. Medical Eligibility Criteria for Contraceptive Use (U.S. MEC)

The 2024 U.S. Medical Eligibility Criteria for Contraceptive Use (U.S. MEC) comprises recommendations for the use of specific contraceptive methods by persons who have certain characteristics or medical conditions.

The 2024 U.S. Selected Practice Recommendations for Contraceptive Use (U.S. SPR)

The 2024 U.S. Selected Practice Recommendations for Contraceptive Use (U.S. SPR) addresses a selected group of common, yet sometimes complex, issues regarding initiation and use of specific contraceptive methods.

Additional resources

Providing Quality Family Planning Services in the United States: Recommendations of the U.S. Office of Population Affairs (Revised 2024)

These recommendations outline how to provide quality sexual and reproductive health services for people of reproductive age but can also be used to guide the care of people of any age when the content is relevant to their needs, including family-building services, contraception, pregnancy testing and counseling, early pregnancy management, sexually transmitted infections and human immunodeficiency virus prevention and testing services, and other preventive health services.