TY  - JOUR
AU  - Cook,Philip J.
AU  - Parnell,Allan M.
AU  - Moore,Michael J.
AU  - Pagnini,Deanna
TI  - The Effects of Short-Term Variation in Abortion Funding on Pregnancy Outcomes
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 5843
PY  - 1996
Y2  - November 1996
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w5843
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w5843.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Philip J. Cook
Sanford School of Public Policy
Duke University
215 Sanford Building
Durham, NC 27708-0245
Tel: 919 613 7360
Fax:  919/681-8288
E-Mail: pcook@duke.edu

Michael J. Moore
Jackson Institute for Global Affairs
Yale University
34 Hillhouse Avenue
New Haven, CT 06511
Tel: 312-925-3315
E-Mail: michael.j.moore@yale.edu
AB  - In 1978 North Carolina created a special fund to pay for abortions for indigent women.  The appropriations for that fund have proven inadequate during five of the years in which it has been in operation, with the result in each case that no state funding was available for several months.  This on-again, off-again funding pattern provides a natural experiment for" estimating the short-run effect of changes in the cost of abortions on the number of abortions (and births) to indigent women.  We utilize a unique dataset obtained from the State, which includes individual records for all pregnancies terminated in the State since 1978.  We estimate the effects of funding termination on the abortion rate per month, the birth rate per month (adjusted to take account of variations in gestation periods), and the probability that a pregnancy will end in abortion, for various demographic groups.  The results suggest that the decisions of poor black women aged 18-29 are particularly sensitive to the availability of abortion funding. Overall, approximately 3 in every 10 pregnancies that would have resulted in an abortion, had state funds been available, are instead carried to term.
ER  -