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Measuring the Burden: The Effect of Travel Distance on Abortions and Births

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  • Myers, Caitlin Knowles

    (Middlebury College)

Abstract

I compile and disseminate novel panel data sets measuring county-level travel distances to abortion facilities and resident abortion rates. Using these data and exploiting temporal and spatial variation in distances, I implement difference-in-difference research designs measuring the causal effects of distance to the nearest abortion facility. The results indicate large and non-linear effect: An increase in travel distance from 0 to 100 miles—a level that courts have generally treated as not unduly burdensome for women seeking abortions—is estimated to prevent 20.5% of women seeking an abortion from reaching a provider, and in turn to increase births by 2.4%.

Suggested Citation

  • Myers, Caitlin Knowles, 2021. "Measuring the Burden: The Effect of Travel Distance on Abortions and Births," IZA Discussion Papers 14556, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14556
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Cameron,A. Colin & Trivedi,Pravin K., 2013. "Regression Analysis of Count Data," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107667273.
    2. Myers, Caitlin & Ladd, Daniel, 2020. "Did parental involvement laws grow teeth? The effects of state restrictions on minors’ access to abortion," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    3. Joanna Venator & Jason Fletcher, 2021. "Undue Burden Beyond Texas: An Analysis of Abortion Clinic Closures, Births, and Abortions in Wisconsin," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 40(3), pages 774-813, June.
    4. Jonathan Gruber & Phillip Levine & Douglas Staiger, 1999. "Abortion Legalization and Child Living Circumstances: Who is the "Marginal Child"?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 114(1), pages 263-291.
    5. Kurt Schmidheiny & Sebastian Siegloch, 2023. "On event studies and distributed‐lags in two‐way fixed effects models: Identification, equivalence, and generalization," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 38(5), pages 695-713, August.
    6. Levine, Phillip B., 2003. "Parental involvement laws and fertility behavior," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(5), pages 861-878, September.
    7. Jason M. Lindo & Caitlin Knowles Myers & Andrea Schlosser & Scott Cunningham, 2020. "How Far Is Too Far? New Evidence on Abortion Clinic Closures, Access, and Abortions," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 55(4), pages 1137-1160.
    8. Fischer, Stefanie & Royer, Heather & White, Corey, 2018. "The impacts of reduced access to abortion and family planning services on abortions, births, and contraceptive purchases," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 43-68.
    9. Elizabeth Oltmans Ananat & Jonathan Gruber & Phillip Levine, 2007. "Abortion Legalization and Life-Cycle Fertility," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 42(2).
    10. Theodore J. Joyce & Robert Kaestner & Jason Ward, 2020. "The Impact of Parental Involvement Laws on the Abortion Rate of Minors," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 57(1), pages 323-346, February.
    11. Caitlin Knowles Myers, 2017. "The Power of Abortion Policy: Reexamining the Effects of Young Women’s Access to Reproductive Control," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 125(6), pages 2178-2224.
    12. Andrew Goodman-Bacon, 2018. "Difference-in-Differences with Variation in Treatment Timing," NBER Working Papers 25018, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Lindo, Jason M. & Pineda-Torres, Mayra, 2021. "New Evidence on the Effects of Mandatory Waiting Periods for Abortion," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    14. David E. Kalist, 2004. "Abortion and Female Labor Force Participation: Evidence Prior to Roe v. Wade," Journal of Labor Research, Transaction Publishers, vol. 25(3), pages 503-514, July.
    15. Robert Picard, 2010. "GEONEAR: Stata module to find nearest neighbors using geodetic distances," Statistical Software Components S457146, Boston College Department of Economics, revised 14 Sep 2019.
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    Cited by:

    1. Altındağ, Onur & Joyce, Theodore, 2022. "Another day, another visit: Impact of Arkansas’ mandatory waiting period for women seeking an abortion by demographic groups," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 213(C).
    2. Lu, Runjing & Ye, Zihan, 2023. "Roe v. Rates: Reproductive Healthcare and Public Financing Costs," SocArXiv 7t5jz, Center for Open Science.
    3. David Slusky, 2022. "The Cost of Restricting Abortion Access," Intereconomics: Review of European Economic Policy, Springer;ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics;Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), vol. 57(3), pages 199-200, May.
    4. Myers, Caitlin Knowles, 2021. "Cooling off or Burdened? The Effects of Mandatory Waiting Periods on Abortions and Births," IZA Discussion Papers 14434, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    travel distance; abortions; births;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I11 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Analysis of Health Care Markets
    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth

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