Negative supply shocks and delayed health care: evidence from Pennsylvania abortion clinics

Hall, Andrea (2023): Negative supply shocks and delayed health care: evidence from Pennsylvania abortion clinics.

Abstract

In 2011, Pennsylvania passed regulations requiring abortion-providing facilities to meet ambulatory surgical facility standards, which ultimately caused the closure of almost half of the state's abortion facilities. All closing facilities were geographically near facilities that remained open, meaning distance to the nearest clinic was unchanged while local clinic capacity fell. I use a difference-in-differences design supplemented with a synthetic control method and  find that reduced clinic capacity caused 20-30 percent fewer abortions in the first 8 weeks of gestation and more abortions at later gestational ages. While evidence suggests births may have increased slightly, the main impact closures had on local women was a delay in abortions.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: abortion; clinic closures; reproductive health
• Subjects: I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I1 - Health > I11 - Analysis of Health Care Markets; I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I1 - Health > I14 - Health and Inequality; I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I1 - Health > I18 - Government Policy ; Regulation ; Public Health; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J1 - Demographic Economics > J13 - Fertility ; Family Planning ; Child Care ; Children ; Youth

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