Beyond Birth Control: Family Planning and Women's Lives is a multiyear project examining the current state of access to contraception and how this access influences women's lives in the short and long term. Supported by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Urban Institute is using mixed research methods to answer two main questions under the project: how does expanded access to affordable contraception affect short- and long-term socioeconomic and health outcomes for women and their families, and what are the persistent barriers to contraceptive access and use, who faces these barriers, and how can these barriers be reduced? This brief is one of a series of Beyond Birth Control products that will provide new and timely information to influence policy debates and highlight areas where progress has been most challenging and where additional resources could most productively be directed
