%0 Report
        %A Marie, Olivier
%A Zwiers, Esmée
        %T Religious Barriers to Birth Control Access
        %D 2023
        %8 2023 Mar
        %I Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        %C Bonn
        %7 IZA Discussion Paper
        %N 16051
        %U https://www.iza.org/publications/dp16051
        %X 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.
        %K birth control
%K religion
%K fertility
%K marriage
%K human capital
%K the Netherlands