THE IMPACT OF PROVIDER AVAILABILITY ON ABORTION DEMAND |
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| Authors: | ROBERT W. BROWN R. TODD JEWELL |
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| Affiliation: | Department of Economics, University of North Texas. This is a revised version of a paper presented at the Western Economic Association International 70th Annual Conference, San Diego, Calif., July 6, 1995. The authors thank David Allen, Ken Koelln, Robert Ohsfeldt, Patricia Smith, WEA session participants, and two anonymous referees for helpful comments. Dev Periyaswamy provided excellent research assistance. Stanley Henshaw and other individuals at The Alan Guttmacher Institute provided data necessary for this study. |
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| Abstract: | Variations in the availability of abortion providers may impact the demand for abortions since greater provider availability reduces the travel cost associated with acquiring an abortion. This paper applies a fertility-control model to estimate the responsiveness of abortion demand to travel-cost variations using county-level data on the state of Texas. Abortion rates as well as pregnancy rates appear to be sensitive to availability-induced variations in the travel cost of abortion services. In particular, the results suggest that residents in counties with longer travel distances to the nearest abortion provider have lower abortion rates and lower pregnancy rates. |
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