Does Increasing Financial Access to Contraception in the U.S. Reduce Unintended Pregnancies? Evidence from the M-CARES Randomized Controlled Trial at Two Years
We use a randomized controlled trial to examine how out-of-pocket costs affect contraceptive method choice, pregnancy, abortion, and childbirth among uninsured 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 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 at 26 months. The effects on births are inconclusive.
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Copy CitationMartha J. Bailey, Emilia Brito Rebolledo, Deniz Gorgulu, Kelsey Figone, Vanessa W. Lang, Alexa Prettyman, and Vanessa Dalton, "Does Increasing Financial Access to Contraception in the U.S. Reduce Unintended Pregnancies? Evidence from the M-CARES Randomized Controlled Trial at Two Years," NBER Working Paper 34400 (2025), https://doi.org/10.3386/w34400.Download Citation
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