Volume 28 - Article 41 | Pages 1199–1212  

Patterns of contraceptive use among Mexican-origin women

By Kari White, Joseph E. Potter

Abstract

Background: Mexican women in the United States (US) have higher rates of fertility compared to other ethnic groups and women in Mexico. Whether variation in women’s access to family planning services or patterns of contraceptive use contributes to this higher fertility has received little attention.

Objective: We explore Mexican women’s contraceptive use, taking into account women’s place in the reproductive life course.

Methods: Using nationally representative samples from the US (National Survey of Family Growth) and Mexico (Encuesta National de la Dinámica Demográfica), we compared the parity-specific frequency of contraceptive use and fertility intentions for non-migrant women, foreign-born Mexicans in the US, US-born Mexicans, and whites.

Results: Mexican women in the US were less likely to use IUDs and more likely to use hormonal contraception than women in Mexico. Female sterilization was the most common method among higher parity women in both the US and Mexico, however, foreign-born Mexicans were less likely to be sterilized, and the least likely to use any permanent contraceptive method. Although foreign-born Mexicans were slightly less likely to report that they did not want more children, differences in method use remained after controlling for women’s fertility intentions.

Conclusions: At all parities, foreign-born Mexicans used less effective methods. These findings suggest that varying access to family planning services may contribute to variation in women’s contraceptive use.

Comments: Future studies are needed to clarify the extent to which disparities in fertility result from differences in contraceptive access.

Author's Affiliation

Other articles by the same author/authors in Demographic Research

Age, education, and earnings in the course of Brazilian development: Does composition matter?
Volume 28 - Article 20

Most recent similar articles in Demographic Research

The big decline: Lowest-low fertility in Uruguay (2016–2021)
Volume 50 - Article 16    | Keywords: adolescent fertility, birth order, fertility, Latin America, ultra-low fertility, Uruguay

Cohort fertility of immigrants to Israel from the former Soviet Union
Volume 50 - Article 13    | Keywords: age at first birth, assimilation, cohort analysis, fertility, immigration, parity, religiosity

Fertility decline, changes in age structure, and the potential for demographic dividends: A global analysis
Volume 50 - Article 9    | Keywords: age structure, demographic dividend, demographic transition, fertility, migration, population momentum, working-age population

Immigrant mortality advantage in the United States during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic
Volume 50 - Article 7    | Keywords: COVID-19, immigrants, mortality

Does the fulfillment of contraceptive method preferences affect contraceptive continuation? Evidence from urban Kenya, Nigeria, and Senegal
Volume 50 - Article 5    | Keywords: contraceptive discontinuation, contraceptive dynamics, contraceptive preferences, contraceptive use, family planning, patient-centered approach, preferences