Before a 2012 contraceptive mandate, 30 to 44 percent of women’s medical spending used to go toward birth control. After the mandate, those numbers fell to 13 to 22 percent.
After the birth-control mandate went into effect, women whose employer-provided health insurance fully covered birth control were slightly more likely to get any prescription contraceptive. They were also more likely to choose more expensive, long-acting methods, such as implants, intrauterine devices, and sterilization. One study has found people using such methods are 20 times less likely to have an unwanted pregnancy compared to people on birth-control pills, patches, and vaginal rings.
The contraceptive mandate also helped women take birth-control pills more regularly. (When taken perfectly, pills are more than 99 percent effective.) One study of insurance claims found that co-pays as low as $6 increased the likelihood that women would stop filling their generic pill prescriptions.
IT MIGHT HAVE PREVENTED ABORTIONS
There’s evidence that free birth control prevents pregnancies, births, and abortions among teenagers. Before the passage of the contraceptive mandate, scientists ran a study offering zero-cost contraceptives to more than 9,000 girls and women, ages 14 to 45, in the St. Louis area. Thirty-four out of every 1,000 teens who participated in the study became pregnant, and 10 out of every 1,000 had an abortion. The national teen pregnancy rate at that time was 159 per 1,000. The teen abortion rate was 42 per 1,000.