Ethics and Policy · Policy and Regulation
RRM Academy Synopsis
Birth control pill accelerated the decline in US marital fertility
A state-law study provides evidence that the birth control pill sped up the fall in US marital fertility during the 1960s. In states banning contraceptive sales, married white women had a 25 to 30 percent lower likelihood of having used the pill by 1965. Birth rates fell more slowly in sales-ban states than in comparison states between 1957 and 1965.
Key Findings
- Compared with women elsewhere in their census region, women in sales-ban states had a 25 to 30 percent lower likelihood of ever having used the pill before the 1965 Griswold decision.
- By 1970 the pill-use gap between state groups had all but disappeared. Sales-ban states showed no significant relative change in any-method use and slight, nonsignificant changes in barrier methods.
- From Enovid's 1957 introduction to 1965, the average within-region gap in birth rates between sales-ban states and comparison states widened by approximately 7 to 9 births for every 1,000 women.
- Among women ages 20 to 24 the gap widened by approximately 18 births for every 1,000 women between 1958 and 1965. At ages 35 to 44 it deviated little from zero.
- The author estimates approximately 124,600 births in 1965 above predicted levels, and a marital fertility rate 8 percent lower in those states and 4 percent lower nationally without sales bans.
Interpretation
The author treats differences in state law as a natural experiment. States that banned contraceptive sales were compared with states in the same census region that did not. The method, difference-in-differences, tracks how two groups change over time. The data came from three historical surveys of currently married white women and from state birth records for 1950 to 1980. The author notes that other forces also shaped 1960s fertility and advises caution in applying the results to other places and periods.
RRM Context
The birth control pill is a suppressive medication that prevents ovulation. The paper follows how legal access to it affected birth counts across the United States. Restorative reproductive medicine starts from a woman's own cycle. Fertility awareness-based methods such as the Creighton Model and the Marquette Method teach her to chart cycle signs and learn her own fertility.
Abstract
The 1960s ushered in a new era in US demographic history characterized by significantly lower fertility rates and smaller family sizes. What catalyzed these changes remains a matter of considerable debate. This paper exploits idiosyncratic variation in the language of "Comstock" statutes, enacted in the late 1800s, to quantify the role of the birth control pill in this transition. Almost 50 years after the contraceptive pill appeared on the US market, this analysis provides new evidence that it accelerated the post-1960 decline in marital fertility.
