Colorado Fertility Project

Understanding the effects of access to contraception on people’s lives

Evaluating the effects of expansion and contraction in contraceptive access

The Colorado Fertility Project (CFP) is an interdisciplinary team housed in the Colorado Population Center (CUPC) and the Population Program at the Institute of Behavioral Science at the University of Colorado Boulder. Our team at CFP is comprised of demographers, sociologists, economists, and data experts from the University of Colorado Boulder, University of Colorado Denver, U.S. Census Bureau, Stockholm University, and Miami University.

Since 2017, the Colorado Fertility Project (CFP) has been rigorously investigating the effects of changes to state-level reproductive policy on women’s lives. CFP seeks to understand the relationship between family planning, fertility, and individuals’ educational and economic lives. CFP has established empirical evidence that increased access to family planning programs that include a variety of contraceptive methods positively impact women’s lives through fertility and non-fertility pathways. With support from NICHD (1R01HD101480)and other sources, CFP built Reproduction in People’s Lives (RIPL), a new source of individual-level longitudinal data similar to that available from longitudinal surveys but covering nearly all of the US and including, for 2007-2021, annual measures of residents’ geographic location, income, employment, household composition, poverty status, and fertility, as well as their birth and death dates. We built RIPL using individual-linked decennial censuses, tax filings, American Community Survey responses, and administrative registers of residential location, birth, and death. We have used RIPL to evaluate expanded contraceptive access in Colorado.

CFP’s research into the relationship between family planning, fertility, and individuals’ educational and economic lives also includes interrogating how state-level policies that reduce or restrict contraceptive access impact women’s social and economic outcomes. This is critical to understand, as related contraction in access affects healthcare systems, contraceptive behavior, and social norms differently than expansion. Reductions in access do not simply reverse the effects of expansions, and may have different impacts on subpopulations, especially those who experience increased vulnerabilities. With support from NICHD (R01HD116105-01) CFP is using the case of Texas to address the unanswered, timely, and directly policy-relevant question: How does reduced contraceptive access impact fertility and socioeconomic outcomes over the life course?

IBS Research

Population Program

Researchers in the Population Program study population dynamics and human well-being in a large variety of contemporary and historical settings. Birth, death, marriage and migration combine with culture to shape the human experience. This powerful combination allows us to understand the dynamics of social and health inequalities, human responses to environmental change, and the causes and consequences of human migration for individuals and places. The Population Program offers an outstanding training environment and student research opportunities, and houses CU Boulder’s Graduate Certificate in Population Studies.

CU Population Center

The CU Population Center (CUPC) is a community of scholars and professionals engaged in population research and training across the University of Colorado. CUPC affiliates conduct research on adolescent health, health conditions (including HIV/AIDS), health behaviors, and health disparities, and are quickly delving into the emerging field of biodemography. Migration is becoming an increasingly important determinant of national and regional population distributions, as well as an important determinant of the socioeconomic well-being and health of both migrants and nonmigrants. The complex interactions between population and the environment represent important arenas of inquiry for CUPC.