Teen Motherhood and Abortion Access

Abstract

It is argued that the net effect of any restriction of abortion access on birth rates is an empirical question. This study examines the impact of access to abortion on county teenage birth rates. Birth rates are expected to decrease by 1% among White adolescents aged 15-19 years for a 25-mile increase in the distance to the nearest abortion provider particularly among in-wedlock births. Data are obtained from 1973-88 National Natality Local Area Summary files for counties in the US and four other national sources. Data did not provide useful information on the empirical relationship between access and birth rate for densely populated urban areas. Cross-sectional findings that had omitted variable bias indicate that an increase of 25 miles in distance to a provider was associated with an additional 1.4 births per 1000 White teenage women or a 3% increase in the average teen birth rate of 45/1000 White teenagers. The findings from a county fixed-effects model that controlled for omitted variable bias indicate that an increase of 25 miles was associated with a reduction in teen births of 0.5/1000 or about 1% of the mean birth rate. Both Medicaid restrictions and parental consent laws were negative and significant and more negative in poor and more isolated counties. The state-year effects models did not change findings on distance and Medicaid restriction effects. The effects of changes in timing of laws suggests that laws followed preexisting trends. Changes in distance to provider were primarily in the first 2 years following the change. Out-of-wedlock births were unaffected by changes in distance to providers. The out-of-wedlock teen birth rate increased with a complete ban on abortions. Fewer wanted births were associated with small restrictions. Findings imply that closing of clinics during 1977-88 had an impact on teen birth rates of under one-tenth of 1%. The 20% increase in teen births was unexplained.