WASHINGTON -- To the list of hot-button ideas for reducing the federal government's budget deficit, add one more: stopping unwanted pregnancies.

Unintended pregnancies likely cost the federal and state governments more than $11 billion a year, estimated a study published Thursday from the Brookings Institution, a nonprofit public-policy organization.

"You're not going to balance the budget by implementing pregnancy-prevention policies--it's a small slice of the pie," said Adam Thomas, research director at the institution's Center on Children and Families and co-author of the paper, which was published Thursday in Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health. But he said that reducing the costs that the government pays for the medical care of women who didn't intend to get pregnant and their young children could narrow the federal deficit.

Mr. Thomas and co-author Emily Monea, a research analyst at the center, estimated that the government spent between $9.6 billion and $12.6 billion paying for more than 1.2 million unintended pregnancies in 2001. That sum covered more than 168,000 abortions, upwards of 782,000 births, and publicly financed medical care for more than 884,000 infants aged five and younger. Because women who unintentionally get pregnant are more likely to be low-income, they are more likely to be eligible for government-financed medical care.

Preventing those unwanted pregnancies would likely save the government between $4.7 billion and $6.2 billion, since some women would likely get pregnant later in life.

"I don't think the main reason for implementing these programs should be saving government dollars, but it's certainly a great benefit," Ms. Monea said.

The realm of reproductive health isn't new to budget fights--last month lawmakers narrowly avoided a government shut-down with a deal that prohibits the District of Columbia from using local revenue for abortions. But the debate is usually centered on the politics of pregnancies, rather than the savings derived by avoiding those that aren't welcome.

At a time of strained finances and partisan politics, however, easy budget fixes are hard to find. On Tuesday, the Senate failed to advance a bill that would have channeled about $2 billion a year in tax breaks for major oil and gas companies to winnow the deficit. The federal government formally hit its $14.294 trillion debt ceiling this week, but special steps are expected to ensure that U.S. borrowing authority won't be exhausted until Aug. 2.

"Deficit reduction can often become a mindless bean-counting exercise," said Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a bipartisan nonprofit focused on fiscal-policy issues. "There shouldn't be any limits" to topics up for negotiation, she said. "Everything should be on the table."

Planned Parenthood, whom Republican lawmakers unsuccessfully tried to exclude from federal health programs recently, embraced the study's findings.

"If anyone doubted that affordable birth control is good for families and good for taxpayers, these new findings should set the record straight," Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said in a statement. Planned Parenthood does not use federal funds for abortions.

Calls to the Heritage Foundation and several anti-abortion lawmakers weren't immediately returned. Americans for Tax Reform, a conservative taxpayer advocacy group, declined to comment.

Write to Kristina Peterson at kristina.peterson@dowjones.com