The post-Cairo justification for family planning is that lower fertility, including fewer unwanted births, leads to better health outcomes for women and children. This paper
investigates that claim. We use data from eleven countries and one large Indian state. Considerable evidence was found of worse health outcomes among unwanted children and less
treatment for sick children in larger families. The effects were quite large: unwanted children are between 10% and 50% more likely to become ill than are wanted children and having one more sibling decreases the likelihood of receiving treatment by from 2% to 8% of the average level of
treatment.
