CAPS' Position
Fertility Rates
Family Planning Facts
Additional Resources

CAPS' Position
CAPS believes in and supports:    

•  Promotion of smaller family size.
• Age-appropriate sex education for all adults and children.
• Family planning services and guidance should be available to all.
• Increase the budget for California's Office of Family Planning as well as all state programs dealing with pregnancy prevention and contraception.
• Complete insurance coverage for all FDA approved contraceptive methods.
• More money, more research and more manufacturers of newer, safer contraceptive methods, including contraceptive methods for males.
• Curtailing unintended pregnancies, especially among teenagers.
• The state child tax credit should be applied only to the first two children (with exceptions for adopted and foster care children).

Fertility Rates

A population will grow or diminish because of changes in fertility, mortality or immigration.
At one time, high fertility was the main contributor to population growth in the United States, such as during the baby boom era after World War II. But after 1972, the fertility rates of American women declined to about 1.8 children and is now at 2.09. Yet, the U.S.' population has continued to grow faster than anywhere else in the industrialized world.

So, one of the other variables that affect population growth was making this happen. That variable was immigration. Replacement levels of fertility, although desirable, are only a part of the answer. The widely held idea that population will stabilize over a lengthy period if total fertility is kept at or below replacement level (2 children per family) is wrong, unless the net immigration is zero. If the number of children per family is less than 2, then we can allow some net immigration to balance out the lower birth rate.

Over time, cultural groups with fertility rates traditionally higher than replacement became an increasing share of the U.S.' population. In California, for example, the increase in population has been so dramatic because of the large number of high fertility immigrants in their child bearing years. The increase in U.S. population increase is at about the same rate as in such countries as Sri Lanka, North Korea and Argentina. The only countries with higher populations are China and India.

We lead the industrialized world in teenage pregnancy, with 75 per 1,000 women aged 15 to 19 - that is nearly 750,000 teens who become pregnant each year! The birth rate for white teens has risen to almost 4 percent, but is three times higher for Latinas. Rates for Black teens fall in between.

Since half of all pregnancies in the U.S. are unintended, CAPS believes an opportunity exists to lower American fertility and its role in population growth.

Family Planning Facts

• 62 million U.S. women are in their childbearing years (15-44).
• 35% of women in Mexico have had a child by the age of twenty, while only 19% of twenty year olds in the US have given birth.
• A woman who wants only two children will need to practice contraception for at least 20 years of her life.
• More than 3 million unintended pregnancies occur every year in the United States.
• The 3 million women who use no contraceptives account for almost half of the nation's unintended pregnancies (47%), while the 39 million contraceptive users account for 53%.
• The majority of unintended pregnancies among contraceptive users result from inconsistent or incorrect use.
• 61% of reproductive-age women who practice contraception use reversible methods such as oral contraceptives or condoms. The remaining women rely on female (28%) or male sterilization (11%).
• Female sterilization, the pill and the condom are the most widely used methods in the three major racial and ethnic groups. However, black women and Hispanic women are most likely to rely on female sterilization, while white women are most likely to use the pill.
• Of the 9.8 million women using barrier contraceptives such as the male condom, the female condom and the diaphragm, one-third report not using their method every time they have intercourse.
• The percentage of nonusers among sexually active women declined by 49% among blacks, by 34% among Hispanics and by 19% among whites during that period.
• In 1988, women aged 22-44 who had a household income below 150% of the federal poverty level were 12% less likely to use a contraceptive method than were those with a higher income (60% vs. 67%); in 1995, 71% of both groups were using a method.
• Contraceptive use among women aged 22-44 who had less than a high school education rose from 60% in 1988 to 73% in 1995, more than equaling prevalence among women with more education (70-72%).

Additional Resources

Family Health International

California Family Planning Council