The Long-Term Effect of Birth Control Laws (1960-1979) on Women’s Health at Old Age: Evidence from the U.S. Health and Retirement Study

Amy Ehntholt, Harvard University
Erika L. Sabbath, Harvard University
Lisa Berkman, Harvard University
Mauricio Avendano, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and Harvard University

There remains a dearth of studies examining whether the contraception laws that transformed women’s life trajectories during the second half of the 20th century had any long-term, permanent effects on women’s health. We exploit variations in state laws granting access to the pill among women at ages 15 to 22 to assess a causal impact on women’s late-life health and survival. We use longitudinal data for women participating in the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), and construct complete employment, marriage, and fertility histories based on life-history event data for ages 15 to 39. We then link these data to state-level data on contraception laws. Our study is innovative in its extension of previous investigations on the impact of the pill on social outcomes to assess whether they led to sustainable health gains among women reaching middle- and old age.