Religious Barriers to Birth Control Access

Arbeitspapier

This paper presents new causal evidence on the "power" of oral contraceptives in shaping women's lives, leveraging the 1970 liberalization of the Pill for minors in the Netherlands and demand- and supply-side religious preferences that affected Pill take-up. We analyze administrative data to demonstrate that, after Pill liberalization, minors from less conservative areas were more likely to delay fertility/marriage and to accumulate human capital in the long run. We then show how these large effects were eliminated for women facing a higher share of gatekeepers – general practitioners and pharmacists – who were opposed to providing the Pill on religious grounds.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 16051

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Health: Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health ; Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure; Domestic Abuse ; Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth ; Cultural Economics: Religion
• Subject: birth control ; religion ; fertility ; marriage ; human capital ; the Netherlands

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Marie, Olivier ; Zwiers, Esmée
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
• (where): Bonn
• (when): 2023

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/272678
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:43 AM CET