The Power of the IUD: Effects of Expanding Access to Contraception Through Title X Clinics Andrea M. Kelly Jason M. Lindo Analisa Packham NBER Working Paper No. 25656

Issued in March 2019

NBER Program(s):Children, Health Care, Health Economics, Public Economics

We estimate the effect of Colorado's Family Planning Initiative, the largest program to have focused on long-acting-reversible contraceptives in the United States, which provided funds to Title X clinics so that they could make these contraceptives available to low-income women. We find substantial effects on birth rates, concentrated among women in zip codes within 7 miles of clinics: the initiative reduced births by approximately 20 percent for 15-17 year olds and 18-19 year olds living in such zip codes. We also examine how extensive media coverage of the initiative in 2014 and 2015 altered its reach. After information spread about the availability and benefits of LARCs, we find a substantial increase in LARC insertions, extended effects on births among 15-17 year olds living greater than 7 miles from clinics, and significant reductions in births among 20–24 and 25–29 year olds.

(892 K) Acknowledgments Machine-readable bibliographic record - MARC, RIS, BibTeX Document Object Identifier (DOI): 10.3386/w25656