CCPR Director, Professor Martha Bailey, discusses the economics of family planning on the Financial Times podcast
CCPR Director and Economist Professor Martha Bailey discusses the economic effects of family planning in a recent Financial Times podcast with Sarah O’Connor. Bailey explains how access to contraception has shaped the U.S. economy, particularly for women and low-income families. Her research shows that family planning enabled women to delay marriage and childbearing, fueling gains in education, employment, and lifetime earnings. Bailey highlights how the Title X reproductive healthcare subsidies of the late 1960s enabled low-income individuals to make different investments in their children. In the short run, children born to low-income individuals with access to family planning were less likely to be born in poverty, live in single-parent households, or rely on federal assistance programs. In the long run, they are more likely to attend college, be employed, and earn more as adults, suggesting intergenerational effects of these programs.
Bailey cautions that, in addition to reducing access to contraception, rolling back Title X funding would reduce access to STI testing, cancer screenings, and other essential preventive care and likely increase the number of unintended pregnancies and widen inequality. At present, it’s difficult to quantify longer-term effects, but Bailey suspects we will see changes in the evolution of women’s careers, families, and children in the next generation.
