The Determinants and Impact of State Abortion Restrictions

Abstract

This paper shows that a state’s abortion policy is determined by the strength of interest advocacy groups and political forces. The greater the membership in the National Abortion Rights Action League, the percentage of female state legislators and the percentage of Democratic female legislators, the less restrictive a state’s abortion policy. The greater a state’s population that are Roman Catholics, the more restrictive a state’s abortion policy. The paper also estimates the impact abortion restrictions have on a state’s abortion rate. The empirical results show that abortion restrictions have no statistically significant impact on a state’s abortion rate. A state’s abortion restrictions do not significantly increase out‐of‐state abortions.