A couple of weeks ago, we blogged about the explosion in vasectomies at the Cleveland Clinic, which prompted a lively discussion here at Cribsheet. Many of you said the economy had not halted your plans for more babies.

Since my day job is health reporter at the paper, this made me wonder if there was a story here.

I ended up talking to a bunch of clinics including Planned Parenthood and Family Tree Clinic and they had some pretty eye-popping numbers. Even as many couples are forging ahead with baby plans, it’s true that vasectomy and IUD numbers here have risen as the economy has headed south.

Apparently, this is a recurring pattern. Birth rates fell in the Great Depression and during the oil shocks of the 1970’s. And of course, good times in the 1950’s led to the baby boom.

Thank you to the un-named Cribsheeter who talked to me for the story, adding a compelling human voice to what would otherwise have been a rather dry piece filled with numbers.

The story ran in the Sunday paper but because of a new policy on keeping certain stories offline for a few days, only went online yesterday.

Here it is: “Economy is down and birth control is up.”

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