PRI Family Demography Working Group

Thursday, 28 October, 12 noon - 1pm EST

Abortion Access, Child Maltreatment, and Foster Care Entries

Marina Potter

Reproductive autonomy enables women to control the timing and circumstances in which they give birth. Conversely, unintended births are associated with parental stress, stalled educational and employment trajectories, and fewer partnership choices. These hardships may reduce parents’ ability to adequately care for their children. In this study, I test the effects of abortion access, measured by distance to the nearest clinic and average service population of abortion clinics, on rates of child maltreatment and foster care entry at the county level from 2009 to 2018. I use difference-in-difference models with county and year fixed effects. I find that an additional 100,000 women per clinic is associated with a four percent increase in substantiated maltreatment rates and an increase of 100 miles to the nearest clinic predicts a fifteen percent increase in foster care entry rates. These findings have important implications for child well-being and abortion policy.

Information: Nancy Luke (nkl10@psu.edu)