The Consequences of Federal Abortion Funding Bans

• In Event: Changes in Abortion Access in the 20th and 21st Centuries

Abstract

In the United States, public funding restrictions prohibit the use of federal funding for abortion services. We examine the health and economic consequences of these initial federal funding restrictions through the Hyde Amendment. The Amendment, passed by the US Congress in 1976, restricts the use of federal funds for abortion, except in extreme circumstances of rape, incest, or the endangerment of the pregnant woman’s life. This federal prohibition leaves more than 16 million women without the ability to access federal funding for abortion services despite their reliance on Medicaid for other essential health care. We exploit variation in exposure to these funding restrictions by comparing high-and low-Medicaid eligibility counties. We use an event-study design as our main empirical strategy to consider the effect of the Hyde Amendment on county-level fertility. We find that the federal prohibition of abortion funding raises fertility by two percent for young adult women in counties with high Medicaid eligibility. The Hyde Amendment also disproportionately impacts non-white women, those more likely to be receiving Medicaid. After the Hyde Amendment, there is an increase in non-white hospitalizations for abortion complications and a temporary increase in non-white maternal mortality. Economic outcomes deteriorate for non-white women after the Hyde Amendment. Non-white women are more likely to be receiving welfare directly after the passage of the Hyde Amendment. Non-white women’s income and employment also declines after 1977. Overall, federal abortion funding restrictions appear to widen health and economic racial disparities.

Authors

• Nikita Dhingra, Georgia State University
  Presenting Author

• Lauren Velasco, Georgia State University
  Non-Presenting Co-Author

• Mayra Belinda Pineda-Torres, Texas A&M University
  Non-Presenting Co-Author