Migration Responses to State Abortion Policy

Teresa Molina (), Nicole Siegal () and Jaehyun Choi ()
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Teresa Molina: University of Hawaii at Manoa
Nicole Siegal: Indiana University
Jaehyun Choi: Indiana University

No 18615, IZA Discussion Papers from IZA Network @ LISER

Abstract: This paper examines whether and how migration decisions respond to state-level changes in abortion policy in the United States. Using information on gestational age limit abortion restrictions and interstate migration from 2006-2019, we estimate a gravity model of migration. We predict bilateral migration flows using gestational age restrictions in the origin and destination states, a variety of economic, demographic, and political control variables for both states, as well as state-pair and year fixed effects. While out-migration does not respond to gestational age restrictions, in-migration does: individuals are significantly less likely to move to states that implement a 20-week gestational age limit (the most restrictive policy in our study period). Heterogeneity analysis reveals similar effects for men and women, and large effects for women past reproductive age, suggesting these effects are driven at least in part by ideological preferences, not just the potential future need for an abortion. Results are robust to the use of an extended two-way fixed effects (ETWFE) estimator that accounts for heterogeneous treatment effects with staggered treatment adoption in non-linear models.

Keywords: abortion restrictions; gestational age limits; interstate migration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I18 J13 R23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-mig
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