The Effect of Dobbs on Risky Sexual Behavior

• In Event: Choices and Tradeoffs: How Modern Family Policies Reshape Time, Risk, and Work

Abstract

We use difference-in-difference and event-study designs to estimate the effect of the recent Dobbs vs. Jackson Supreme Court decision on risky sexual behavior, using gonorrhea rates as a proxy for risky sex as well as self-reported survey data from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS). We find that states which enacted total abortion bans experienced meaningful reductions in rates of gonorrhea, and that high school students report being less likely to have ever had sex, having fewer sexual partners in total, and that young women are more likely to have used a condom the last time they had sex.  This suggests that the restrictions put in place following Dobbs are far more salient than previous abortion restrictions.

Author

• James Flynn, Miami University
  Presenting Author