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The impact of abortion legalization on fertility and female empowerment: new evidence from Mexico

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  • Damian Clarke
  • Hanna Mühlrad

Abstract

We examine the effect of a large-scale, free, elective abortion program implemented in Mexico City in 2007. This reform resulted in a sharp increase in the request and use of early term elective abortions: approximately 90,000 abortions were administered by public health providers in the four years following the reform, versus only 62 in the five years preceding the reform. We document, firstly, that this localised reform resulted in a legislative backlash in 18 other Mexican states which constitutionally altered penal codes to increase sanctions on abortions. We take advantage of this dual policy environment to estimate the effect of progressive and regressive abortion reform on fertility and women’s empowerment. Using administrative birth data we find that progressive abortion laws reduce rates of child-bearing, particularly among young women. Additionally, the reform is found to increase women’s role in household decision making—an empowerment result in line with economic theory and empirical results from a developed-country setting. We however find little evidence to suggest that the resulting regressive changes to penal codes have had an inverse result over the time-period studied. In turning to mechanisms, evidence from a panel of women suggests that results are directly driven by increased access to abortion, rather than changes in sexual behaviour, contraceptive use or contraceptive knowledge.

Suggested Citation

  • Damian Clarke & Hanna Mühlrad, 2016. "The impact of abortion legalization on fertility and female empowerment: new evidence from Mexico," CSAE Working Paper Series 2016-33, Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford.
  • Handle: RePEc:csa:wpaper:2016-33
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    File URL: https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:0c7d5e3e-24e0-40a7-bf0e-4056044eb82f
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Fertility; Female Empowerment; Abortion legalization; Mexico;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • I15 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Economic Development
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration

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