Economic stimulus

About one-third of women's wage gains throughout the 1990s can be attributed to changing laws in the 1960s and 70s that lowered the age at which women could legally access the pill. "We found that women who had early access to the pill in the 1960s and 1970s earned 8 percent more on average by the 1980s and 1990s than women without early access," said Martha Bailey, a research affiliate at the U-M Institute for Social Research who authored the study. When some states dropped the legal access age from 21 to 18, the report found, contraceptive use among 18- to 20-year-olds doubled. This development, in particular, allowed more college-aged women to finish school without being interrupted by an unplanned pregnancy. "As the pill provided younger women the expectation of greater control over childbearing, women invested more in their human capital and careers," said Bailey. "Most affected were women with some college, who benefited from these investments through remarkable wage gains over their lifetimes."

How is birth control good for the economy? A new study from the University of Michigan finds that access to birth control correlates with increased wages for women. Increased spending power for women means an economic boost for America. It's all common sense.It's been very well established that women's health and children's health, family stability, and economic security are all improved with access to family planning. Now we have some more insight into the direct economic consequences for women who have life-long access to birth control, and it's pretty much nothing but good, and not just for women.

Which makes it nothing but bad for the Right. The war on women is all about taking that self-determination away. At least they've stopped trying to be subtle about that, and now are fighting it in the open.