The Effects of Economic Conditions and Access to Reproductive Health Services On State Abortion Rates and Birthrates

Abstract

The effects that such factors as wages, welfare policies and access to physicians, family planning clinics and abortion providers have on abortion rates and birthrates are examined in analyses based on 1978-1988 state-level data and longitudinal regression techniques. The incidence of abortion is found to be lower in states where access to providers is reduced and state policies are restrictive. Calculations indicate that decreased access may have accounted for about one-quarter of the 5% decline in abortion rates between 1988 and 1992. In addition, birthrates are elevated where the costs of contraception are higher because access to obstetrician-gynecologists and family planning services is reduced. Economic resources such as higher wages for men and women and generous welfare benefits are significantly and consistently related to increased birthrates; however, even a 10% cut in public assistance benefits would result in only one birth fewer for every 212 women on welfare. Economic factors showed no consistent relationship with abortion rates.

Social Policy and Abortion: A Review of the Research

“…This translates into a decrease of 5 percent in a state's overall abortion rate, which is a magnitude similar to that found by Levine et al [6]. Other studies [7][8][9][10][11][12] using different estimation techniques, time periods and model specifications found that a Medicaid funding restriction reduced a state's abortion rate by between 3-4 percent.…”

The Impact of State Abortion Policy on the Price of an Abortion

“…State Medicaid funding of abortions is found to increase the abortion rate of women of childbearing age (15-44 years) by between 3% to 5%, depending on the time period examined (Blank et al, 1996;Levine et al, 1996;Matthews et al, 1997;Haas-Wilson, 1997;Gohmann & Ohsfeldt, 1993;Medoff, 1997Medoff, , 2007Medoff, , 2010.…”

“…If restrictive state abortion laws increase the price charged by abortion providers, this would imply that prior numerical estimates of a negative relationship between particular restrictive abortion laws and state abortion rates were underestimated since they excluded the positive effect of the laws on the abortion price (Gohmann & Ohsfeldt, 1993;Blank et al, 1996;Levine et al, 1996;Matthews et al, 1997;Medoff, 1997Medoff, , 2007Medoff, , 2010. This paper, using state-level data for the years 2000, 2005, 2008 and 2011, empirically examines the relationship between restrictive state abortion laws and the price charged by abortion providers.…”

Abortion as Insurance

“…Regarding Medicaid funding restrictions, these papers continue to find that abortions are reduced when restrictions are imposed, but they also find no corresponding increase in births (c.f. Matthews, et al 1996;and Levine, Trainor, and Zimmerman, 1996). In fact, some evidence appears to indicate that births also fell in response to these policies.…”

“…In those studies that found that parental involvement policies reduced abortions (Rogers, et al, 1991;Ohsfeldt and Gohmann, 1994; and some specifications in Matthews, et al, 1996), birthrates are estimated to either fall or remain constant, again indicating that pregnancies fell. Joyce, et al (1997) show that a mandated waiting period reduced abortion rates, but found no strong evidence of an increase in births.…”