Does Increasing Financial Access to Contraception in the U.S. Reduce Undesired Pregnancies? Evidence from the M-CARES Randomized Control Trial at Two Years

Martha Bailey, Emilia Brito Rebolledo, Deniz Gorgulu, Kelsey Figone, Vanessa W. Lang, Alexa Prettyman and Vanessa Dalton

No 34400, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: We use a randomized controlled trial to examine how the costs of contraception affect method choice, pregnancy, abortion, and childbirth among U.S. women. The study recruited women seeking care through Title X—a national family planning program subsidizing reproductive health services for low-income Americans—and randomized vouchers making the full spectrum of available contraception highly discounted or free. We find that subsidizing contraception has large and persistent effects on the choice of contraceptive method, resulting in significantly fewer pregnancies and abortions within two years. Subsidizing contraception negatively affected births, but the effect was not significant at two years.

JEL-codes: I14 I18 J13 J18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem, nep-exp and nep-hea
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