Wanting Children: Family Planning Policies and the Engineering of America’s Population

Leonard Lopoo, associate dean, chair and professor of public administration and international affairs; Paul Volcker Chair in Behavioral Economics; and director of the Maxwell X Lab at Syracuse University, will present, “Wanting Children: Family Planning Policies and the Engineering of America’s Population” as part of the CPR Seminar Series. 

Abstract: Government-sponsored family planning in the United States is quite different from other wealthy countries. We focus on the low-income population exclusively and only provide assistance if a low-income family wants to avoid childbearing. This book discusses the state—past, present, and future—of U.S. federal family-planning pro¬grams, including its eugenic legacy. I will show that, while we would like to think any American who wants to become a parent can, the odds for the wealthy and the poor are highly unequal. I also offer a new way to think about family planning in the U.S. I argue that all population policies should focus on wantedness, i.e., that most equitable approach to family planning is one that supports families that want to have children as strongly as those who do not.