Policy Research: Department of the Obvious

In a new Brookings paper, Melissa S. Kearney and Phillip B. Levine reach the startling conclusion that when you increase the number of teenagers eligible to receive family planning services through Medicaid you get fewer teen pregnancies. Imagine that! It seems worth mocking but, honestly, the absurd thing isn't so much the research as that the relevant policies aren't already in place. For the record: "The authors estimate the policy cost of preventing an unwanted birth to be around $6,800. They conclude that this is a cost-effective policy intervention relative to other policies and programs targeted at reducing teen and unwanted births."

That comes to us via Tapped.

Photo by Flickr user gnarlsmonkey used under a Creative Commons license

Comments

Teaching girls that boys are icky and not to be trusted (and that Jesus watches everything they do) didn't work out so well I guess.

Posted by steve duncan | July 29, 2008 11:38 AM

By the same token, it is reasonable to believe (and backed up by abundant evidence) that when you legalize abortion, you get more unwanted pregnancies, at least some of which will result in unwanted out of wedlock births. Wonder when I will see Mr. Yglesias and his allies note that interesting fact on their blogs?

Posted by Hector | July 29, 2008 11:41 AM

But do you get fewer people having sex?

Because that is the only measure that actually matters to some people.

Posted by DTM | July 29, 2008 11:41 AM

The fact that it works is the most terrifying thing to a conservative. At least with unwanted pregnancies, you get useful specters of shame, poverty, and suffering, which are useful when taming the unwashed.
.

Posted by Grand Moff Texan | July 29, 2008 11:47 AM

I think that conservatives know that abstinence only education doesn't work, and that their current policies will increase the rate of teen pregnancy. This is what they want. Conservatives are deathly afraid that America will be swallowed up by muslim immgrants (just look at Europe they say), and that our only hope is to make all those white trash have more babies. Of course studies show that this doesn't really change the number of children born per mother increase, it only makes them come earlier, when the parents are ill-equipped to care for children. Pro family, baby!

Posted by freddiemac | July 29, 2008 11:48 AM

But I wanna control their sex life AND outlaw abortion!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted by Adam | July 29, 2008 12:01 PM

I think that conservatives know that abstinence only education doesn't work, and that their current policies will increase the rate of teen pregnancy. This is what they want.

Passive-aggressive sociopaths making sure people are miserable enough to fuck over.

Anything else would be "socialism."
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Posted by Grand Moff Texan | July 29, 2008 12:02 PM

it is reasonable to believe (and backed up by abundant evidence) that when you legalize abortion, you get more unwanted pregnancies, at least some of which will result in unwanted out of wedlock births.

Cite, please.

Posted by NBarnes | July 29, 2008 12:03 PM

Cite, please.

Posted by NBarnes

Is it too late to abort the troll?
.

Posted by Grand Moff Texan | July 29, 2008 12:06 PM

Hector - what evidence is so abundant to back up your claim? Since abortion has been legal for 30 odd years now, I just wonder what sort of comparison could be made that can attribute an increase of unwanted pregnancies to legal abortions, without controlling for the many many other factors. Sounds like wishful thinking, what right-wingers tell each other at social gatherings as they get their back's patted by everyone for caring so much about the children and soldiers before they vote to cut off funding for education and body armor.

Posted by Adam | July 29, 2008 12:07 PM

it is reasonable to believe (and backed up by abundant evidence) that when you legalize abortion, you get more unwanted pregnancies, at least some of which will result in unwanted out of wedlock births.

It is also reasonable to believe (backed by common sense) that if you ban abortions, you will still have clandestine abortions performed by quacks, at lease some of which will result in tragic deaths or medical problems.

Posted by 2cynicalbyhalf | July 29, 2008 12:09 PM

Hector said:
"when you legalize abortion, you get more unwanted pregnancies, at least some of which will result in unwanted out of wedlock births."

And outlawing abortion means a reduction in unwanted pregnancies, but all such pregnancies would result in either unwanted out of wedlock births or dangerous back alley abortions. This is better?

Posted by john i | July 29, 2008 12:19 PM

Omigosh, I just thought of something.

Airbags reduce fatalities in car accidents.

Economic theory tells us less fatalities in car accidents should lead to marginally more car accidents.

So we should totally ban airbags--they cause car accidents!

Posted by DTM | July 29, 2008 12:20 PM

And John McCain's voting record on this issue is...?

Horrendous, no matter what Carly Fiorina says.

http://strategy08.wordpress.com

Posted by Dan | July 29, 2008 12:21 PM

Interesting how teen pregnancy rates decline under a Democrat and rise under a Republican.

Historical trends:
http://www.childtrendsdatabank.org/figures/14-Figure-1.gif

Now this, hitting a 15-year high, reported by the venerable Fox News.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,380323,00.html

The GOP doesn't care about unwanted babies, or teens getting pregnanct. If they did, they'd support policies that work. The right-wing's ill-advised waste of resources on abstinence only education is coming back to bite us. They're content with a pyrrhic victory; so long as they feel they can claim a moral high ground, the cost doesn't matter.

Posted by Adam | July 29, 2008 12:25 PM

In some countries they have a great way to minimize teen sex -- stone girls who have sex! I hear it is quite effective. Also, very few dead girls have abortions, which is a huge plus.

Posted by Mark | July 29, 2008 12:29 PM

I'm all in favor of research into the allegedly-obvious. It's the value of having something to cite when you are asked "cite, please." I'm sure you could find conservatives--every lawmaker opposed to providing such services, to start with--who would argue that making birth control more available has no effect on teen pregnancy rates. And of course, sometimes the research shows that our widely-held "obvious" beliefs aren't true. Adam's statistics aren't obvious to anyone on Fox News, I'd wager.

Posted by Deborah | July 29, 2008 12:33 PM

All you have to do is look to other countries that make comprehensive education and access to contraception the norm - teen pregancy, STD rates are much lower in Western Europe.

The key difference is that US policies, driven by the puritanical right aim to discourage people (including teens) from having SEX, not from getting pregnant or catching a disease.

Posted by CParis | July 29, 2008 12:38 PM

The point of the research is to show how large the effect is, and not whether there is an effect. Now we know how much it costs to do this -- something we didn't know before.

Posted by econ | July 29, 2008 12:43 PM

". . . it is reasonable to believe (and backed up by abundant evidence) that when you legalize abortion, you get more unwanted pregnancies, at least some of which will result in unwanted out of wedlock births."

Post hoc ergo propter hoc, right?

Posted by Henderstock | July 29, 2008 2:59 PM

Adam,

I'm not a right-winger, and I'm thoroughly in favor of increased access to contraception. In part because it does decrease the abortion rate.

Levitt did find in his study about abortion and crime rates that conceptions increased 30% in the immediate aftermath of Roe v. Wade.

Posted by Hector | July 29, 2008 3:03 PM

Hector,

You're an idiot. In Canada, there is NO abortion law at all, one of the very few countries in the world where abortion is legally totally unregulated. Between 1974, when abortion was still regulated, and 2003, when it is not, the teen pregnancy rate (13-19, not to 17 as in US figures) dropped from 54 to 32 per thousand.

Posted by sunsin | July 29, 2008 4:16 PM

Fuck unwanted pregnancies; they can get aborted.

What we want to decrease are unwanted BABIES.

Abortion, it turns out, is a GREAT solution to an unwanted pregnancy, not a PROBLEM associated with it.

Posted by Luke | July 29, 2008 6:37 PM

Re: Abortion, it turns out, is a GREAT solution to an unwanted pregnancy, not a PROBLEM associated with it.

Therein lies the path to the Nazi death camps.

Posted by Hector | July 29, 2008 9:26 PM

Re: This is what they want. Conservatives are deathly afraid that America will be swallowed up by muslim immgrants

Not Muslim immigrants: Hispanic immigrants.

Re: What we want to decrease are unwanted BABIES.

Abortion is not risk free and it certainly is not cost-free. Contraception is a vastly better alternative from every perspective. From your post signature I assume you are male, as am I. Stop and think for a moment if you'd be happier taking a pill or having a surgeon slicing and dicing inside you.

Posted by JonF | July 29, 2008 9:30 PM

By the way, I'm sorry I compared the poster above to a Nazi. That was an intemperate and uncharitable, heat-of-the-moment response. I tend to get extremely annoyed when I hear someone say 'Abortion is a GREAT' solution, but my response was more than a bit over the line.

Posted by Hector | July 29, 2008 10:26 PM