No. 120, 2011 Population Economics The Impact of State Health Insurance and Abortion Policy on Women’s Choice of Contraceptive Intensity in the United States

Understanding women’s decisions regarding whether and how to use contraception has been the aim of a number of studies. Few have employed economic models that explore the role of future costs in a woman’s choice of contraception. In this study we use an economic framework that takes into account contraceptive costs at the time of consumption (i.e. the presence of health insurance) and future costs in the event of contraceptive failure (i.e. expected abortion costs) to explain the choice of contraceptive intensity for women at risk for an unintended pregnancy in the United States. Using a multinomial logit regression, we determine the relative risk of using hormonal and other contraceptive methods versus no method. We use the 1995 and 2002 cycles of the National Survey of Family Growth. The results indicate a positive and significant association between having insurance and using hormonal contraceptives across years. A positive and significan