Three Essays on the Effects of Health and Education Policies on Teen Childbearing

Despite a near-continuous decline over the past 20 years, the United States has maintained one of the highest teen birth rates in the developed world. Two main arguments support the notion that teenage pregnancy can be seen as a public health concern. First, both unintended pregnancy and teen motherhood are associated with adverse maternal and child health outcomes such as delayed prenatal care, premature birth and negative physical and mental health effects for children. Second, because 4 out of 5 teen pregnancies are unintended, teen mothers may be ill-equipped to raise children, and they may impose external costs on friends, family, and community members. Historically, legislation aimed at decreasing teen pregnancy rates attempts to reduce or delay the initiation and frequency of sex and/or prevent risky sexual behavior. These types of policies include sex education mandates, legal access to contraception, and public funding for women’s health clinics. In this dissertation, I use quasi-experimental methods to determine the effects of such health and education policies on teen pregnancy. My combined findings from my three working papers indicate that although abstinence-based sex education requirements do not affect teen birth rates or teen abortion rates, there may be some scope for Title X clinics to effectively lower teen pregnancy rates through increased access to contraception. Providing free long-acting reversible contraceptives to low-income women via publicly funded clinics reduces the teen birth rate by 5%-7%, while dramatically reducing family planning funding increases teen birth rates by approximately 5%