Publicly funded contraception saves taxpayers about $4 for every $1 spent, by preventing nearly 2 million pregnancies and more than 800,000 abortions every year, according to the institute’s 2009 report. The cost of the pill — maybe $10 to $50 a month — is middling when compared with the many thousands of dollars spent on prenatal and pediatric care for an unintended pregnancy.

Lisa Hymas rallies environmentalists:

It should be obvious why climate hawks need to care about making birth control widely accessible: fewer unwanted pregnancies will mean fewer unwanted births (not to mention fewer abortions), and, ultimately, fewer greenhouse gases.