Working Paper: NBER ID: w18810
Authors: Silvie Colman; Thomas S. Dee; Theodore J. Joyce
Abstract: Parental involvement (PI) laws require that physicians notify or obtain consent from a parent(s) of a minor seeking an abortion before performing the procedure. Several studies suggest that PI laws curb risky sexual behavior because teens realize that they would be compelled to discuss a subsequent pregnancy with a parent. We show that prior evidence based on gonorrhea rates overlooked the frequent under-reporting of gonorrhea by race and ethnicity, and present new evidence on the effects of PI laws using more current data on the prevalence of gonorrhea and data that are novel to this literature (i.e., chlamydia rates and data disaggregated by year of age). We improve the credibility of our estimates over those in the existing literature using an event-study design in addition to standard difference-in-difference-in-differences (DDD) models. Our findings consistently suggest no association between PI laws and rates of sexually transmitted infections or measures of sexual behavior.
Keywords: Parental Involvement Laws; Risky Teen Sex; Sexually Transmitted Infections; STIs; Abortion Access
JEL Codes: I18
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Parental involvement laws (K36) | Teen sexually transmitted infection (STI) rates (J13) |
| Parental involvement laws (K36) | Frequency of unprotected sex (C41) |
| Parental involvement laws (K36) | Number of sexual partners (J12) |
| Teen sexually transmitted infection (STI) rates (J13) | Sexual behavior measures (C99) |