IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/popdev/v51y2025i4p1527-1554.html

The Impact of COVID‐19 on Abortions in Spain

Author

Listed:
  • Sofia Karina Trommlerová
  • Libertad González

Abstract

We study changes in abortions in Spain around the first COVID‐19 lockdown. We find a large drop (of 24 percent) in the number of abortions during and shortly after the strict lockdown in spring 2020. We explore to which extent the fall was driven by fewer (unintended) pregnancies due to social isolation versus restricted access to abortion services. We show that the drop was not more pronounced in areas located further away from abortion clinics nor in locations with more COVID‐19 hospitalizations. The fall in abortions was 45 percent larger among non‐cohabiting women (relative to cohabiting women, who experienced a 16 percent decline). We also document a 38 percent drop in the abortion ratio (abortions over pregnancies), driven exclusively by non‐cohabiting women. Overall, our results suggest that the main driver of the drop in abortions in Spain was a reduction in unintended pregnancies among single women during the lockdown, due to reduced social interactions.

Suggested Citation

  • Sofia Karina Trommlerová & Libertad González, 2025. "The Impact of COVID‐19 on Abortions in Spain," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 51(4), pages 1527-1554, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:popdev:v:51:y:2025:i:4:p:1527-1554
    DOI: 10.1111/padr.70022
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/padr.70022
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/padr.70022?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:popdev:v:51:y:2025:i:4:p:1527-1554. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0098-7921 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.