Demand For Abortion Research Articles

THE SUPPLY OF INFANTS RELINQUISHED FOR ADOPTION: DID ACCESS TO ABORTION MAKE A DIFFERENCE?

Motivated by a theory of desired fertility I use three years of aggregate state level data to examine the impact of abortion access on the supply of infants relinquished for adoption. I show evidence that abortion access affected the supply of infants relinquished during the 1980s in two different ways. First, the availability of abortion providers has the expected effect of reducing the supply of infants relinquished, particularly relative to the demand for abortion. Second, abortion law has an unexpected negative effect. This suggests that as abortion laws become more restrictive the total number of unwanted births may decrease. (JEL J13)

State Abortion Policy, Geographic Access to Abortion Providers and Changing Family Formation

One of the goals in cutting welfare payments and setting time limits on welfare receipt is the reduction of out-of-wedlock childbearing among poor women. Yet such changes may increase the demand for abortion at the same time that access to abortion has decreased, throwing into doubt the potential effect of these changes on the proportion of women who are heading families. State and county fixed-effects models were used to estimate the effects of factors influencing abortion availability--geographic access, parental notification requirements and Medicaid funding restrictions--on the county-level proportion of women heading households. The decline in geographic access to abortion providers during the 1980s accounted for a small but significant portion of the rise in the percentage of women heading families (about 2%). Restrictions on Medicaid funding for abortion accounted for about half of the increase in female headship among blacks, while new state parental notification requirements contributed modestly to the rise in the proportion of white women heading single-parent families. Welfare reform legislation and attempts to reduce the availability of abortion services in the United States appear to be working at cross-purposes. Cutbacks in access to abortion may have contributed modestly to the increase in the proportion of women heading households.

Estimates of the abortion demand of young and older teenagers

This study estimates the demand for abortion by younger (ages 15–17) and older (ages 18–19) teenagers. The empirical results show, for both age groups, abortion demand is price inelastic and a normal good with respect to income. Teenage abortion demand is also found to be positively related to labor force participation and state Medicaid funding and negatively related to religiosity and unemployment. State family planning programs, AFDC benefits, and parental involvement laws are found not to be significant determinants of teenage abortion demand.

A pooled time-series analysis of abortion demand.

This study estimates the demand for abortion in the United States using state data pooled over years 1992 and 1982. The empirical results showed that the price elasticity of abortion demand ranged from -0.70 to -0.99 and an income elasticity between 0.27 and 0.35. The demand for abortion was found (1) not to be statistically related to a woman's educational level; (2) to be higher the greater a state's taste for abortion; (3) coincident with the business cycle; and (4) not to be related to the level of a state's welfare payment.

THE IMPACT OF PROVIDER AVAILABILITY ON ABORTION DEMAND

Variations in the availability of abortion providers may impact the demand for abortions since greater provider availability reduces the travel cost associated with acquiring an abortion. This paper applies a fertility‐control model to estimate the responsiveness of abortion demand to travel‐cost variations using county‐level data on the state of Texas. Abortion rates as well as pregnancy rates appear to be sensitive to availability‐induced variations in the travel cost of abortion services. In particular, the results suggest that residents in counties with longer travel distances to the nearest abortion provider have lower abortion rates and lower pregnancy rates.

The Impact of State Abortion Restrictions on Minors' Demand for Abortions

This study uses a weighted least squares model and a fixed-effects model to estimate the impact of parental consent laws and laws governing Medicaid funding of abortions on the adolescents demand for abortion in the United States during 1978-90. The focus is on adolescent pregnancy because 12% of total legal abortions in 1987 were to adolescents aged under 18 years. The rate of abortion and types of abortion law range widely between states. Data are obtained from the US Center for Disease Control on reported abortions from the NARAL Foundation on the dates of actual enforcement restrictions and from the Alan Guttmacher Institute on abortion providers. The empirical model is based on a model developed by Grossman and Joyce. Proxy measures are used to represent abortion sentiment. Fixed effects models indicated that there was a decline of 13-17% in adolescents demand for abortion in states with enforced parental involvement laws compared to states without enforced laws. The results implied a 9-15% decline in adolescents demand for abortion in states that restricted Medicaid funding of abortion compared to states that did not. There was a positive association between abortion demand and income and between abortion demand and the availability of abortion providers. The inclusion of the abortion sentiment proxies did not change the signs and magnitudes of the impact very much in the fixed-effects models. It is posited that the negative impacts of abortion restrictions on adolescent abortion demand cannot be attributed to unobserved heterogeneity. Four methods of modeling are used to account for the potential role of unobserved heterogeneity.

A note on "An economic approach to abortion demand.".

Donna S. Rothstein analyzed the socioeconomic factors which affect the demand for abortion using a cross-section of 1985 data for the fifty states of the US and Washington, D.C. The dependent variable was the percentage of pregnancies of women aged 15-44 which are terminated through legal abortion. Rothstein found that the average cost of abortions and the unemployment rate had significant negative effects upon the demand for abortion, while disposable personal per capita income, the availability of Medicaid funding for abortion, the percentage of unmarried women aged 15 and older, the states which are located in the far west, and the divorce rate had significant positive effects upon the demand for abortion. Educational status had no significant effect upon abortion. The author re-estimated Rothstein's abortion demand model using a continuous abortion price variable instead of a dummy variable to find that the abortion price and Medicaid funding have insignificant effects upon demand for abortion. Policy implications are discussed.

Political, Ideological and Economic Determinants of Abortion Position: An Empirical Analysis of Stale Legislatures and Governors

Abstract. The Supreme Court's decisions in the 1989 Webster and 1992 Casey cases shifted the focus of abortion legislation from the federal to the state level. In light of this shift, the factors that affect the position taken by state level office holders on abortion is examined using state level data. Results of a probit analysis show that a governor's position on abortion is significantly influenced by the governor's ideology as well as the abortion demand of his or her constituency. Similar probit analyses for state senates and stale houses shows that a constituency's abortion demand as well as factors representing the constituency's demand for access to legal abortion services significantly affect the position both legislative bodies take on abortion. Policy maker's ideology is found to play a significant role in shaping state senates’ position on abortion, but not the positions of state houses’. This last result is consistent with the proposition that policy makers who have a narrow constituency, such as state house members, have less freedom to make decisions based on their own ideology and are more beholden to the views of their constituency, all else equal.

Medical abortion in Britain.

Factors affecting method preference for induced abortion in Britain are cost and experience in clinical trials. Demand for abortion exists regardless of access to contraception; 1 in 5 pregnancies in Britain are aborted. Since July 1991, alternatives to vacuum aspiration have become available. RU486, or mifepristone, in combination with gemeprost, a prostaglandin, 48 hours later has shown a 95% successful complete abortion rate. The actual study involve 100 women at 9 weeks' gestation receiving 600 mg of mifepristone followed by 1 mg of gemeprost pessary. The complication rate was low and the pregnancy continuation rate was 0.3% which is similar to vacuum aspiration. Almost 50% of abortion seekers in France prefer medical (drug-induced) abortions. Studies in Aberdeen have shown that about 25% desired either medical or surgical abortion and 50% had no preference. Only about 10% of abortions performed in Britain are medical abortions. The reasons medical abortion is not more widely used, regardless of its availability, may involve the organization of services for abortion: the requirement for prompt referral before 9 weeks, the special licensing required for practice of medical abortion on the premises, and higher cost. Medical abortions cost 43 pounds for the mifepristone and 21 pounds for the gemeprost, but the cost could be reduced by reducing the amount of mifepristone to 200 or 400 mg in combination with 0.5 or 1 mg of gemeprost. World Health Organization studies have found little loss in efficacy and a significant reduction in diarrhea and vomiting, which, with the reduction in cost, ought to make medical abortion more attractive to women and institutions. Studies in France an the United Kingdom have found that a synthetic prostaglandin, misoprostol, could be substituted for gemeprost and reduce the side effects associated with gemeprost. Misoprostol also costs only 1 pound for a 400-600 mg dose. Medical abortion has the advantage of not requiring highly skilled staff or special facilities; the necessary room should have couches or beds. 2 trained nurses under medical supervision could serve 6 women per morning. Three visits are required. Most of the present use is in hospitals in the UK that have conducted clinical trials.

Effects of price and availability on abortion demand.

Over 1.5 million legal abortions were performed in the United States in 1988. State‐level regulation affecting the price or availability of abortion services may expand given recent Supreme Court decisions. This paper uses state‐level data pooled over time to estimate abortion demand. Using single cross‐sections of state data, past studies find abortion demand per 1,000 pregnancies to be price inelastic and find income elasticity to be positive and significant. The analysis here shows that price elasticity estimates in a single cross‐section are sensitive to the choice of state characteristics used to control for “abortion attitudes” within a state. Ajixed‐efects model design with pooled data gives more robust abortion demand price elasticity estimates. The results suggest that any new state regulations that increase the costs of obtaining abortions will reduce abortion use and increase unintended fertility.

Physicians, abortions, and the law in early twentieth-century Ontario.

This article studies the medical and legal responses to the abortionrelated death of Constance Ida Browne of Toronto, Ontario in 1924. The subsequent coroner's inquest led to a criminal prosecution of Browne's doctor and also her male lover on charges of illegally procuring a miscarriage. The legal proceedings and the detailed press commentary of the time offer an excellent opportunity to consider the interaction between medical and legal authorities jostling for position over the proper response to the demand for illegal abortions. The case also permits an examination of the social, psychological, economic, and medical circumstances which surrounded the procuring of illegal abortion in the first half of the twentieth century.

A demand function for the New York abortion market.

The elasticity of demand for the services of free standing clinics in New York City was estimated by fitting linear and exponential models to price and stock data (clinic capacity) as independent variables. The relatively high price elasticity (—1.2) found was surprising given the urgency of need situation of many of the buyers of such services. The majority of buyers originate outside New York raising the cost of purchase. Since price is a consideration in abortion demand, the price-income effect of right to life move ment induced subsidy reductions for abortions may have a dramatic impact on abortion demand.

Fertility, bodies and politics: The Irish case

The struggle on the part of women in Ireland to secure abortion rights is an outgrowth of the complex interrelationships between womens bodies demographic trends and the politics of fertility in a Catholic-dominated state. Despite a post-Potato Famine post-Independence ideology of unregulated fertility marital fertility fell by 36% in 1961-81 and a below-replacement level of 2.11 was achieved in 1989. Irelands demographic transition has been attributed to the increasing level of female education and labor force participation associated with the shift from an agricultural to industrial society; however the significance of womens struggles to control their own reproduction cannot be dismissed. The depth of this struggle is illustrated by the response to the 1992 X case in which a 14-year-old suicidal rape victim was forbidden to travel to England to secure an abortion. A complex Supreme Court ruling allowed the teen to abort on the grounds that Irish abortion law guarantees the right to life to the fetus but also to the mother; a similarly ambiguous referendum held in 1993 rejected a right-to-life constitutional amendment and supported a womans right to travel abroad for abortion services and to have access to abortion information. Although the referendum represents the first victory for Irelands pro-choice movement its codification remains uncertain and information and access to contraception are not guaranteed. Teenagers minority women and poor women are most likely to be denied access to contraception and family planning services are not available in 3 of Irelands 7 regional public health services. This is producing a situation where postcoital contraception available to young women through the Irish Family Planning Association is a primary form of fertility control. The growing demand for contraception and abortion represents a determination on the part of a broad movement of Irish women to secure freedom from unacceptable social constraints and a patriarchal morality.

Estimates of Demand for Abortion among Soviet Immigrants in Israel

In 1990, more than 185,000 Soviet Jews emigrated to Israel, increasing Israel's population by 4 percent; 148,000 more arrived in 1991. Given the fertility and abortion patterns prevailing among Soviet women in their native country, this article inquires about the short-range expected increase in abortion demand in Israel engendered by this large migratory inflow. Estimation techniques based on the abortion experience of an earlier wave of Soviet-born immigrants in Israel reveal that the increase in requests for abortion brought about by the 1990 immigrants may reach up to 14 percent, and as high as 24 percent for the combined immigration waves of 1990 and 1991. The expanded demand for abortions in Israel engendered by the new Soviet immigrants necessitates an expansion of both family planning services and of the medical committees entitled to grant a legal abortion. A failure in these fields would benefit illegal abortion.

The Demand for Abortion by Unmarried Teenagers

Abstract A demand model was developed and applied to a nationally representative sample of unmarried, pregnant teenagers drawn from the National Longitudinal Surveys in order to identify the economic determinants of abortion Measures of the opportunity costs of pregnancy were found to play a major role in the individual's decision to give birth or to abort Economic variables in the analysis included predicted wages, local area unemployment rates, other family income, poverty status, and school enrollment status Other factors found to be significant were age, ethnicity, and religiosity In general, young women in favorable economic circumstances were substantially more likely than others to abort a pregnancy

An economic approach to abortion demand.

"This paper uses econometric multiple regression techniques in order to analyze the socioeconomic factors affecting the demand for abortion for the year 1985. A cross-section of the 50 [U.S.] states and Washington D.C. is examined and a household choice theoretical framework is utilized. The results suggest that average price of abortion, disposable personal per capita income, percentage of single women, whether abortions are state funded, unemployment rate, divorce rate, and if the state is located in the far West, are statistically significant factors in the determination of the demand for abortion."

Abortion demand

Abortion demand

The demand for abortion in England and Wales

The provision of abortion services in England and Wales is modelled with particular emphasis given to the relationship between the public and private sectors. The presence of excess demand in the public sector is established and its importance as a determinant of private demand is analysed. This study replicates the analysis and findings of one based on 1971 data with data for 1983. It is estimated that nearly one-half of the private sector demand arises as a result of excess demand in the public sector.

An economic analysis of the demand for abortions.

This study uses an economic model of fertility control to estimate the demand for abortions. The results show that the fundamental law of demand holds for abortions, with the price elasticity of demand equal to –.81. Abortions are a normal good with an income elasticity of demand equal to .79. The demand for abortions is also positively related to the labor force participation of women and to being unmarried. Catholic religion, education and the poverty status of women were found to have no statistically significant impact on the demand for abortions.

An intervention analysis of the effects of legalized abortion upon U.S. fertility

Models of time series data on births in the United States are used to assess the impact of the 1973 decision of the U.S. Supreme Court invalidating statutes that seriously restrict access to abortion. The decision of the Court is found to have no discernible impact on births for the nation as a whole. Models of state-level data suggest that the legalization of abortion by states prior to the decision was satisfying the demand for abortion