Ananat, Elizabeth Oltmans, Jonathan Gruber, and Phillip Levine. 2007. “Abortion Legalization and Life-Cycle Fertility.” Journal of Human Resources 42(2): 375–397.
The early-1970s abortion legalization led to a significant drop in fertility. We investigate whether this decline represented a delay in births or a permanent reduction in fertility. We combine Census and Vital Statistics data to compare the lifetime fertility of women born in early-legalizing states, whose peak childbearing years occurred in the early 1970s, to that of women from other states and cohorts. We find that much of the reduction was permanent, in that women did not compensate by having more children later, and that it largely reflects an increased share of women remaining childless throughout their fertile years.
Elizabeth Oltmans Ananat is an assistant professor of Public Policy and Economics at Duke University. Jonathan Gruber is a professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Phillip Levine is the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Economics at Wellesley College and a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research. The data used in this article can be obtained beginning October 2007 through September 2010 from Phil Levine, Department of Economics, Wellesley College, plevine@wellesley.edu.