Distance to Abortion Facilities and Child Living Conditions-Implication of the Abortion Law Change in the United States

Lee, Cheuk Ling and Chong, Terence Tai Leung (2024): Distance to Abortion Facilities and Child Living Conditions-Implication of the Abortion Law Change in the United States.

Abstract

This paper aims to study the effect of distance to abortion facilities on the birth rate, abortion ratio and pregnancy rate in the United States. It will further extend the effect of the change in birth statistics on child living conditions, measured by adjusted family income and the percentage of children living below the poverty line in a state. It will correspond to the amendment of the abortion law in the United States in 2022. Our results suggest that an increase in the distance to abortion facilities will reduce the birth rate, abortion ratio and pregnancy rate. However, for the living circumstances, the significant positive effect was shown only in the black children group and the general groupn when the distance increased. In the non-black children group, the effects were only marginally significant or not significant on their living conditions. The results may also imply different reasons for abortions among different races.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: abortion; distance; US
• Subjects: 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; K - Law and Economics > K3 - Other Substantive Areas of Law > K36 - Family and Personal Law

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