Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/267394 
Year of Publication: 
2022
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 15657
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
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.
Subjects: 
abortion
legal abortion
maternal mortality
Roe v. Wade
maternal health
JEL: 
I18
J13
K38
H75
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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