Abortion access is a powerful predictor of women’s long-term future in the United States

New research published in the American Sociological Review has highlighted the significant economic and educational advantages for women who had access to abortion during adolescence. The study found that women who lived in areas with fewer abortion restrictions as teenagers, or who had an abortion rather than a live birth in adolescence, were more likely to graduate from college, earn higher incomes, and experience greater financial stability over a 25-year period. These findings suggest that access to abortion is a critical factor shaping women’s socioeconomic outcomes across their lifetimes.

The researchers aimed to address a longstanding gap in sociological research by exploring how access to abortion impacts women’s economic lives. While much attention has been given to the consequences of childbearing on women’s socioeconomic outcomes, relatively little research has focused on abortion. This is surprising given the widespread nature of abortion in the United States—about one in four women will have an abortion by age 45—and the significant economic challenges posed by early childbearing.

The study was particularly timely in light of the United States Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, which overturned federal abortion rights established by Roe v. Wade. This legal shift created a fragmented policy landscape in which millions of women now live in states with restricted or banned access to abortion. The researchers sought to understand the potential long-term consequences of such restrictions by examining historical data from a time when abortion was more accessible in many states.

“I was interested in this topic largely because I think most people don’t know how common abortion is; almost 100,000 were done in the United States every month of the past year. In the context of growing restrictions and the repeal of Roe v Wade, understanding the broader consequences of these changes in reproductive health policy is critical. One understudied area is the economic implications of restricted access,” explained study author Bethany Everett, an associate professor at the University of Utah.

The study utilized data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), a nationally representative dataset that tracks participants from adolescence into adulthood. This dataset includes rich demographic, socioeconomic, and geographic information, making it ideal for examining the long-term impacts of abortion access. The researchers employed two complementary approaches to investigate the relationship between abortion and socioeconomic outcomes.

In the first approach, the researchers examined how the restrictiveness of abortion policies in a woman’s teenage years affected her long-term socioeconomic outcomes. They categorized abortion policy environments using state- and county-level data on laws and provider availability. The restrictiveness of abortion environments was determined using a composite measure that included:

1. State funding policies: Whether Medicaid funding was available for abortions beyond cases of rape, incest, or life endangerment.
2. Parental consent or notification laws: Whether states required parental involvement for minors seeking abortion.
3. Waiting periods and informed consent: Whether states mandated a waiting period or additional counseling before an abortion.
4. Access to abortion providers: Whether a woman’s county had at least one abortion provider.

These factors were aggregated to create a restrictiveness score ranging from less restrictive to highly restrictive. Women who lived in areas with fewer restrictions during their teenage years were compared to those in more restrictive environments.

The researchers linked these policy environments to individual-level data on women’s education, income, and financial stability at two points in adulthood: ages 24–32 and ages 34–43. To account for potential confounders, the analysis controlled for individual characteristics like race, parental education, family income, and community-level factors such as urbanicity and educational spending.

The sample initially included 10,263 female respondents from the 1994 Add Health survey (ages 12–18) but was narrowed to 5,849 women with valid geographic and follow-up data.

The second approach focused on 1,561 women from the Add Health dataset who reported a pregnancy before age 20, excluding cases of miscarriage and incomplete data. Of these, 19.6% had abortions, while 80.4% gave birth.

The researchers compared the socioeconomic outcomes of those whose pregnancies ended in abortion with those who gave birth as teenagers. They used counterfactual matching techniques, which pair individuals with similar characteristics (e.g., socioeconomic status, family background) to isolate the effect of abortion on later outcomes. By creating matched pairs, the analysis approximated the conditions of a randomized experiment, addressing potential biases related to who chooses abortion versus parenthood.

The researchers found that women who grew up in less restrictive abortion policy environments tended to have better socioeconomic outcomes later in life. These differences were particularly pronounced in education, income, and financial stability.

1. Education: Women in less restrictive environments were more likely to graduate from college. By their early 40s, these women had significantly higher rates of bachelor’s degree attainment compared to their peers in more restrictive environments.
2. Income: Women who lived in less restrictive areas during adolescence reported higher incomes as adults. On average, these women earned between $5,000 and $10,000 more annually than those in more restrictive regions.
3. Financial Stability: Indicators of financial distress, such as trouble paying bills, eviction, or being in debt, were less common among women from less restrictive environments. These women also reported greater success in maintaining consistent access to basic needs like utilities and housing.

“The robustness of the findings was surprising,” Everett told PsyPost. “We found the same results over multiple periods and multiple measures of socioeconomic status.”

The comparison of teenage pregnancy outcomes provided further evidence of the benefits of abortion access.

1. Education: Among women who experienced a pregnancy as teenagers, those who had an abortion were significantly more likely to graduate from high school and college. Nearly 28% of women who had an abortion completed college by their early 30s, compared to just 9% of those who gave birth as teenagers. By their early 40s, this gap widened, with 41% of women who had abortions holding a college degree compared to 16% of those who gave birth.
2. Income: Women who had an abortion as teenagers earned substantially higher incomes in adulthood. The income advantage persisted over time, with those who had abortions earning at least one income category higher (approximately $5,000–$10,000 more annually) compared to their peers who gave birth.
3. Economic Instability: Women who had abortions reported fewer experiences of economic instability, such as food insecurity, utility shutoffs, and eviction. They were also less likely to report being in debt if their assets were liquidated.
4. Employment: While the study found no significant differences in overall employment rates, it suggested that women who gave birth as teenagers were more likely to be employed in low-wage or unstable jobs. This finding implied that abortion access not only facilitated higher educational attainment but also allowed women to pursue higher-paying and more stable careers.

The findings highlight that “the ability to decide when to have a child is a powerful predictor for women’s long-term economic futures, including their education, their ability to pay bills, avoid debt, prevent eviction, and achieve higher incomes,” Everett said. “Alternatively, the results also highlight how poorly the United States supports young mothers; early childbearing should not condemn women to a life of poverty, and many policy changes could be implemented to support young parents and families.”

The researchers controlled for factors like poverty status, parental education, and adolescent aspirations to ensure that differences in outcomes were not simply due to preexisting disparities. However, as with all research, there are limitations to consider. The data reflect conditions from the 1990s and early 2000s, a time when abortion was more accessible in many parts of the United States than it is today. Additionally, the researchers noted that abortion is often underreported due to stigma.

“Abortion is notoriously underreported, so we do know that there are many respondents in the sample who we did not capture who likely had abortions but did not report them on the survey,” Everett said. “We don’t have a reason to fundamentally believe that these women would differ from the ones in our sample meaningfully.”

In previous research, Everett found that men whose partners had an abortion during adolescence tended to have better socioeconomic outcomes than those who became fathers. These men were more likely to graduate from college and continue their education beyond high school.

“These results are part of a broader ‘Abortion Beneficiaries’ project that I am working on, which has documented the benefits of abortion access for men, as well as preliminary findings on the role of abortion access in marital stability and decreased risk of divorce,” Everett explained. “As I said earlier, given how common abortion is, it’s important to document the wide-ranging consequences of changes in reproductive health policy in the United States.”

The study, “Abortion and Women’s Future Socioeconomic Attainment,” was authored by Bethany G. Everett and Catherine J. Taylor.