What Drives Child Poverty? Pro-Life Politics.

American children have become far less poor. Thank big government -- and reproductive rights.

Photo by Guillaume de Germain on Unsplash

A sweeping analysis of child poverty in the United States has one big takeaway: Far fewer American kids are living in poverty today than they were a few decades ago.

Journalist Jason DeParle wrote up the findings in an excellent and pretty comprehensive New York Times piece, and you should read it. The conclusion of the analysis is, essentially, that social welfare programs are the largest force behind child poverty reductions — programs including SNAP (food stamps), cash welfare, the Earned Income Tax Credit, and housing subsidies — and increased female labor force participation, particularly of single mothers, contributed as well. But one major poverty-reduction factor is missing from the Times piece, and was only partially analyzed by researchers: Vast reductions in unintended pregnancies, fewer women who have been forced to carry pregnancies they did not want, and more children who are planned, wanted, and welcomed.

All of which, as we know, has radically changed in the last few months.

The analysis doesn’t look at unintended pregnancy reductions broadly, or at the fact that American women are having children later, and having fewer of them — all things that suggest more pregnancies are planned, and more women are delaying pregnancy until they feel financially ready for a child. But the analysis does look at teen pregnancy rates, which have dropped off precipitously in the last 30 years, and here is what they say:

Finally, decreases in teen birth rates were associated with decreases in child deep poverty. Holding everything else constant, the 72 percent decrease in teen birth rates from 1993 to 2019 corresponded with 52 percent of the decrease in deep poverty over the past quarter century. Researchers have attributed declines in the teen birth rate to less teen sex and to more contraceptive use; these shifts, in turn, may have been due to media and messaging campaigns, the availability of effective contraceptive methods, and pregnancy prevention programs. These efforts may also continue to help keep child deep poverty rates low; however, because teen birth rates are currently at a historic low, further reductions in teen births may be less dramatic.

The reason teen birth rates are at historic lows? Advocacy from reproductive rights groups not just to expand abortion access, but to make long-acting and highly-effective contraceptives more widely available, and to offer comprehensive sex ed in schools.

Self-styled “pro-lifers” opposed all of these measures.