Religiosity and Support for Adolescent Access to Contraception Among Mexican Catholic Parents

Stephanie Kung , Ipas
Biani Saavedra, Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE)
Evelyn Aldaz Vélez, Católicas por el Derecho a Decidir
María Consuelo Mejía Piñeros, Católicas por el Derecho a Decidir
Gillian Fawcett Metcalfe, Católicas por el Derecho a Decidir
Blair G. Darney, Oregon Health & Science University

Objective: We test whether religiosity is associated with support for adolescent access to contraception among Mexican Catholic parents. Methods: We used a nationally-representative survey of 2,186 self-identified Mexican Catholic parents and multivariable logistic regression to assess two outcomes: overall support for adolescent access to modern contraception and unaccompanied adolescent access to contraceptive services. Results: Mexican Catholic parents overwhelmingly support adolescent access to modern contraceptive methods (85%) but only 28% believe adolescents should be able to access contraception unaccompanied. Controlling for covariates, Catholicism as measured by frequency of mass was not significantly associated with either outcome. People who believe that good Catholics can use contraception have significantly higher odds of support for adolescent access to methods (aOR 2.4; 95% CI: 1.6-3.4) and unaccompanied access (aOR 1.5; 95% CI: 1.0-2.1). Conclusion: Support for adolescent access to birth control in theory (overall) is very different from support for access in practice (unaccompanied access).

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 Presented in Session 108. Influence of Religiosity, Morality, and Other Social Norms on Contraceptive Use Among Teenagers