1. Fifty percent of pregnancies (and 3 5 percent of births) are unintended (Finer and Henshaw 2006; Martinez et al. 2006); and2. Intentions are the strongest predictor of a woman's subsequent fertility behavior (Westoff and Ryder 1977; Schoen et al. 1999).3. Among birth cohorts of women recently completing childbearing, women missed their stated intentions (at age 22) by an average of nearly one birth (Morgan and Rackin 2010); and4. Recent birth cohorts' mean fertility intentions (at age 22) exceed only slightly their average completed fertility (at age 40) (Quesnel-Vallee and Morgan 2003; Morgan and Rackin 2010).While not irreconcilable, the first statement in each pair suggests a more modest role of fertility intentions on fertility behavior than the second one. Demographers have debated the value and role of fertility intentions for decades (Klerman 2000; Morgan 2001; Schoen et al. 1999; Luker 1999). But demographers cannot be divided into those who value them and those who do not. Instead the literature suggests an ongoing struggle to come to terms with the seemingly obvious importance of fertility intentions and the shortcomings of current conceptualizations. In this article, we reconcile the two pairs of statements by addressing some conceptual shortcomings in the literature on fertility intentions. More specifically, we examine the value of fertility intentions for fertility research against the backdrop of theory and research in the cognitive and social sciences.
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