The Long-run Effect of Abortion on Sexually Transmitted Infections

Christopher Cornwell and Scott Cunningham

American Law and Economics Review, 2013, vol. 15, issue 1, 381-407

Abstract: There is a growing literature on the effects of abortion legalization on a range of fertility outcomes. The now-famous paper by Donohue and Levitt [2001. "The Impact of Legalized Abortion on Crime," 116 Quarterly Journal of Economics 379--420], linking abortion to the decline in crime in the 1990s, has shifted the focus to non-fertility outcomes. We focus on STIs, specifically gonorrhea, exploiting the states that legalized abortion prior to Roe v. Wade as a quasi-experiment. Using data from the CDC, we present difference-in-difference estimates showing gonorrhea incidence fell among 15--19-year-olds in early-repeal states 15--19 years after legalization. The effects are most pronounced and precisely estimated for Black women. The basic findings hold up under triple-differencing with an untreated older cohort that was not in utero during abortion repeal. Copyright 2013, Oxford University Press.

Date: 2013
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