Religious Barriers to Birth Control Access

Olivier Marie and Esmee Zwiers

No 16051, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This paper presents new causal evidence on the "power" of oral contraceptives in shaping women's lives, leveraging the 1970 liberalization of the Pill for minors in the Netherlands and demand- and supply-side religious preferences that affected Pill take-up. We analyze administrative data to demonstrate that, after Pill liberalization, minors from less conservative areas were more likely to delay fertility/marriage and to accumulate human capital in the long run. We then show how these large effects were eliminated for women facing a higher share of gatekeepers – general practitioners and pharmacists – who were opposed to providing the Pill on religious grounds.

Keywords: birth control; religion; fertility; marriage; human capital; the Netherlands (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I18 J12 J13 Z12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 69 pages
Date: 2023-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur, nep-hea and nep-his
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Working Paper: Religious Barriers to Birth Control Access (2022)
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