The Michigan Contraceptive Access, Research, and Evaluation Study (M-CARES): Report on the First Year

Bailey, Martha; Bailey, Martha

_{In the United States, nearly half of pregnancies are unintended, and unintended pregnancies occur five times more often among poor women (Finer and Zolna 2016, Sedgh, Singh, and Hussain 2014). In 2011, 42 percent of unintended pregnancies (excluding miscarriages) ended in abortion (Finer and Zolna 2016). Roughly two thirds of unintended births paid for by public insurance programs (Sonnfield and Kost 2015).}

_{The Michigan Contraceptive Access, Research, and Evaluation Study (M-CARES) examines how greater financial access to reproductive health care impacts contraceptive use, childbearing, and women’s lives using a large-scale, randomized control trial. Currently underway in twelve Planned Parenthood clinics across the state of Michigan, M-CARES randomly assigns vouchers for contraceptives to income-eligible women ages 18 to 35, effectively reducing the out-of-pocket costs for contraceptives to zero for 100 days. M-CARES then follows women for 30 years in surveys and administrative data (e.g., tax data, credit reports, birth records, PPMI clinic records, and Census data) to quantify the effect of free contraception. This paper reports on the first year of recruiting, including the effects of the voucher on take up of effective contraceptives, pregnancy and childbearing, and abortion.}

Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Panel Paper: The Michigan Contraceptive Access, Research, and Evaluation Study (M-CARES): Report on the First Year