The Impact of Legal Abortion on Maternal Mortality

Sherajum Monira Farin, Lauren Hoehn-Velasco and Michael Pesko
Additional contact information
Sherajum Monira Farin: Georgia State University

No 15657, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Legal abortion has recently been suggested as an essential healthcare service. In this study, we consider whether abortion legalization over 1969-1973 improved women's health, measured by maternal mortality. Our event-study results indicate that legal abortion substantially lowered non-white maternal mortality by 30-40%, with 113 non-white maternal deaths averted nationally in the first year abortion became legal. We also find that early state-level legalizations were crucial, and more influential than the Roe v. Wade decision itself.

Keywords: maternal health; Roe v. Wade; maternal mortality; legal abortion; abortion (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H75 I18 J13 K38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 106 pages
Date: 2022-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea and nep-law
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Published - published in: American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 2024, 16 (3), 174 - 216

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp15657.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: The Impact of Legal Abortion on Maternal Mortality (2024)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15657

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Holger Hinte ().