title: Unintended pregnancy and taxpayer spending.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Nearly half of all pregnancies in the United States are unintended. These pregnancies likely represent a substantial cost to taxpayers, but national-level estimates of these public costs have been lacking.
  
  
  METHODS
  Taxpayer spending on unintended pregnancy is measured by multiplying estimates of the 2001 incidence of publicly financed unintended pregnancy outcomes (abortions, fetal losses, births and need for infant medical care) by average per-incident costs. Public savings that would result from preventing unintended pregnancies are estimated by assuming that the prevention of an unwanted pregnancy would save the full cost of financing the pregnancy, while the prevention of a mistimed pregnancy would save the cost of financing the pregnancy today minus the present value of the cost of financing the pregnancy when it eventually occurs.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Lower-bound, mean and upper-bound estimates of the annual cost of unintended pregnancy are, respectively, $9.6 billion, $11.3 billion and $12.6 billion. Corresponding estimates of the savings that would accrue to taxpayers by preventing unintended pregnancies are $4.7 billion, $5.6 billion and $6.2 billion. The mean estimate of the taxpayer cost per publicly subsidized unintended pregnancy is $9,000; the prevention of such a pregnancy would save taxpayers about half that amount.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The prevention of unintended pregnancy represents an important opportunity for the public to reap substantial savings, especially given the current fiscal climate. The enactment or expansion of cost-effective policies to prevent unintended pregnancies is therefore a timely and sensible strategy.
authors.affiliation: Brookings Institution, Center on Children and Families, Washington, DC, USA. emonea@brookings.edu
authors.forename: Emily
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Monea
authors.forename: Adam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Thomas
mesh_terms: D000028:Abortion, Induced / Q000191:economics*; D002662:Child Health Services / Q000191:economics*; D002676:Child, Unwanted / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017046:Cost Savings / Q000379:methods; D005193:Family Planning Services / Q000191:economics*; D005260:Female; D005313:Fetal Death / Q000191:economics; D005380:Financing, Government / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D011247:Pregnancy; D011275:Pregnancy, Unwanted; D011314:Preventive Health Services / Q000191:economics*; D013660:Taxes / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014481:United States