61% Say Birth Control Responsibility Should Be Shared — But Only 27% Want to Split the Cost

More than half of the men and women surveyed by DatingNews — 61% — agree that both partners should be equally responsible for preventing pregnancy. But add money to the equation, and things get complicated: Just 27% think couples should split the cost of birth control. So who should pay — men or women? 

The answer is no longer as simple as “women take birth control pills, so they should pay for them.” With male birth control pills inching closer to reality, the question of who is responsible for preventing pregnancy is becoming harder to separate from who should foot the bill.

After all, 54% of men and women surveyed for a previous DatingNews study said they would support an FDA-approved male birth control pill, while 44% of men said they would personally take one. And despite all that talk of shared responsibility, men are much more likely than women to say the male partner should pay for birth control.

The findings suggest there may be no one-size-fits-all answer to who should pay for contraception. Generational attitudes, income, gender, and personal ideas about reproductive control all come into play — revealing just how complicated the seemingly simple question of who picks up the tab can be.

Men Are Nearly 3x as Likely as Women to Say Men Should Pay for Birth Control

There are more gentlemen out there than your jaded heart might believe. Case in point: regardless of who is actually taking birth control pills, some men are nearly 3x as likely to believe that paying for birth control should fall to men, not women — that’s 17% of male respondents compared to just 6% of female respondents.

You might think that women would jump at the chance to share or offload the cost of birth control, but this isn’t always true. Thirty-two percent of women said that the person using birth control should pay for it, compared to 21% of men. Why wouldn’t women want to lighten this financial load?

Women are fighting to gain (and regain) their reproductive rights. In a way, paying for birth control — a financial burden for some — is worth it if it means having autonomy over one’s own body.

Paying for their birth control is about more than money. It’s about maintaining control over their reproductive choices.

Deciding whether to take birth control is a highly personal decision because it directly affects one’s body. By necessity, women have understood this for years. Now, as male birth control becomes more of a possibility, men are starting to put themselves in women’s shoes — and we might see the effect of this in their survey responses. 

Our survey found that 28% of male and 27% of female respondents believe that couples should split the cost of birth control, regardless of who’s taking it. 

When it comes to paying for birth control, it’s hard to make everyone happy. This might explain why more men than women believe the decision should be left up to each couple based on their individual needs (19% vs. 13%). 

Women have long fought for control over their own contraception, and the fact that more men than women believe decisions about payment should be left to each couple — rather than dictated by outside forces — could signal a growing understanding that reproductive control is deeply tied to a person’s health and well-being.

Gen Z Is Rejecting the “You Use It, You Pay for It” Approach

A topic as personal as birth control is not without its contradictions, especially when you break it down by the generations. So even though 32% of women told DatingNews that the person taking the birth control should pay for it, only 16% of Gen Z respondents (both men and women) agree. 

The older the survey respondent, the more likely they were to believe in the more traditional approach, where the person taking birth control pays for it: 23% of millennials, 30% of Gen X, and 37% of baby boomers. 

In fact, one of the most glaring gaps in the study is between Gen Z and baby boomers, who have very different opinions on whether the male partner should pay for birth control. Although 13% of Gen Z say the male partner should pay, only 3% of baby boomers agree. 

With so many differing opinions in the air, you might be thinking, “Why don’t couples just split the cost of birth control down the middle?” In theory, splitting birth control costs 50/50 could promote balance and avoid a sense of inequality. But this approach rarely feels quite so harmonious IRL. 

When you’re dealing with something as personal as birth control, it can be hard to balance all of the financial, physical, and emotional factors at play, especially since they almost always affect the person with the uterus more than the person without the uterus.

So even though going halfsies might work for some people, even our youngest and seemingly most progressive couples aren’t in love with this strategy: Only 19% of Gen Z respondents said couples should split the cost. 

Since Gen Z is less than half as likely as baby boomers to put the cost solely on the person using contraception, it’s clear that younger daters are ready to change the way we talk about birth control and who pays for it. 

Gen Z is less than half as likely as baby boomers to put the cost solely on the person using contraception.

The question of who pays is especially timely as government funding for contraception faces increased scrutiny and cuts. While couples debate how to divide the cost, some respondents are looking beyond their partner and toward the public healthcare system to help cover it.

20% of Gen Z Respondents Say The Government Should Cover Birth Control Costs

People don’t necessarily want governmental interference, but they do want the government to help them. There’s a difference between interference and assistance, and understanding this distinction goes a long way to understanding what the future of birth control and birth control payment could look like in the U.S. 

Two groups stand out when it comes to support for government-covered birth control: Gen Z and lower-income Americans. But because the trends hold independently, the finding points to something bigger than income alone — generational attitudes may be playing a distinct role in how Americans view the cost of contraception.

For one, 20% of Gen Z — the highest of any surveyed generation — believe that the government or public healthcare should cover birth control costs. This number plummets among the older generations: Only 12% of millennials, 10% of Gen X, and 6% of baby boomers agree with those Gen Z respondents. 

And of people who make 30k and 150k per year, there’s only an 8-point difference between the 13% and 5%, respectively, who believe the government should help cover the cost of birth control. Gen Z and Boomers have nearly identical income distributions in this sample, with 38% and 36%, respectively, earning under $30,000. 

Respondents across income brackets land in a similar range (roughly 23–31%), suggesting cost-splitting isn't strictly an income-driven preference.

Money always matters, but the way we’ve been raised to manage money might matter even more (say that three times fast). Let me put it this way: 16% of those earning $150,000+ say the male partner should pay, compared with 7% of those earning under $30,000. High earners, according to our survey, are more comfortable working out payment without government help. 

As we know, simply splitting the cost of birth control isn’t a perfect solution, either. Respondents across income brackets land in a similar range (roughly 23–31%), suggesting cost-splitting isn't strictly an income-driven preference. It’s the way we view responsibility, and not just money, that matters most. 

Sharing the Birth Control Burden May Mean Sharing the Bill

Can you imagine a world where male birth control is a viable option for couples? As this scenario inches closer to becoming reality, DatingNews respondents have made it clear that they’re ready to make birth control a shared responsibility. And yet, couples just can’t decide who should foot the bill. Some believe in sharing the costs, but others aren’t convinced. 

The respondents to this DatingNews survey could not agree on a single payment arrangement. And can you really blame them? Birth control is such a personal choice. We all have different definitions of “responsibility,” we all have different numbers in our bank accounts, and we all carry our own misgivings and our own values into family planning. 

Not to get into politics (though it’s an inevitability when discussing birth control), but DatingNews found that Democrats are 2x as Likely as Republicans to Say Public Healthcare Should Pay for Birth Control. 

And yet, Republicans are surprisingly flexible when it comes to payment options. Thirty percent of Republicans are more open to splitting the cost of birth control, compared to 24% of Democrats. Republicans are also open to having men pay for birth control (14%) compared to 11% of Democrats. 

Of course, this openness might have more to do with financial freedom than actual flexibility surrounding the topic of birth control. The fact that Gen Z is 3x more likely than baby boomers to want government coverage doesn’t mean they have more faith in the government. 

Gen Z is 3x more likely than baby boomers to want the government to cover birth control.

What they want is equality — for the government to recognize that birth control is not a woman’s issue to whisper about behind closed doors, but a human health issue worthy of real discussion and action. 

Right now, male birth control still feels like something out of a science fiction flick, making the conversation around payment and responsibility feel rhetorical rather than genuine. We should get a clearer picture of what couples want — and how they plan on paying for it — when male birth control becomes a reality. 

Methodology

This survey was conducted via online poll on August 20, 2026, among 1,013 U.S. adults. Respondents were surveyed about attitudes toward male birth control, contraceptive responsibility, trust, dating preferences, and who should pay for birth control. Some questions were asked only of male or female respondents, as noted. The overall sample has an approximate margin of error of ±3.1 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.

Media inquiries, please contact colleen@datingnews.com.