As the GOP attacks on birth control increase, a new paper demonstrates its economic value
WEDNESDAY, JUN 7, 2017 4:59 AM EDT
Birth control is a reliable investment in our long-term prosperity. Why do Republicans keep attacking it?
AMANDA MARCOTTE
The war on contraception has moved from the political fringe to the mainstream of the Republican Party, a process that got a boost when one of the most avid anti-choicers in a party full of Bible thumpers, Mike Pence, was elevated to the vice presidency. The first few months of the Donald Trump administration have been characterized by a strong interest in cutting off women from affordable birth control.
Trump has proposed leveling off funding for the Title X family planning program and appointed a woman who is ideologically hostile to birth control to lead the program. His administration is considering a proposal to allow employers to forbid female employees from using their health insurance plans to pay for contraception. In a move clearly designed to appease Mike “They’re All Jezebels” Pence, the administration has proposed barring women on Medicaid from going to Planned Parenthood, even though in many communities it’s the only feasible family-planning option available relying on Medicaid.
So the timing is quite good for a recently published paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research by economists Martha Bailey and Jason Lindo, titled “Access and Use of Contraception and Its Effects on Women’s Outcomes in the U.S.” Spoiler alert: Those effects are largely pretty good for women, even if it makes squinty-eyed misogynist Republicans angry to contemplate women having all this sex without being punished for it.
Bailey and Lindo’s paper is an overview of years of research examining the impact of three basic trends: the liberalization of contraception laws, the increase in government funding for contraception and the legalization of abortion. It will come as no big surprise: The most obvious effect of these trends was a decline in the fertility rate, though the authors do note that part of the decline was likely due to the tapering off of the baby boom. Still, the authors find that “fertility rates in formerly restrictive states dropped sharply relative to those without restrictions” after the 1965 Supreme Court decision that escalated the pace of contraception legalization.
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http://www.salon.com/2017/06/07/as-gop-attacks-on-birth-control-increase-new-paper-demonstrates-its-economic-value/
