Working Paper: NBER ID: w26362
Authors: Joanna Venator; Jason Fletcher
Abstract: In this paper, we estimate the impacts of abortion clinic closures on access to clinics in terms of distance and congestion, abortion rates, and birth rates. Legislation regulating abortion providers enacted in Wisconsin in 2011-2013 ultimately led to the closure of two of five abortion clinics in Wisconsin, increasing the average distance to the nearest clinic to 55 miles and distance to some counties to over 100 miles. We use a difference-in-differences design to estimate the effect of change in distance to the nearest clinic on birth and abortion rates, using within-county variation across time in distance to identify the effect. We find that a hundred-mile increase in distance to the nearest clinic is associated with 25 percent fewer abortions and 4 percent more births. We see no significant effect of increased congestion at remaining clinics on abortion rates. We find significant racial disparities in who is most affected by abortion clinic closures, with increases in distance increasing birth rates significantly more for Black, Asian, and Hispanic women. Our results suggest that even small numbers of clinic closures can result in significant restrictions to abortion access of similar magnitude to those seen in Texas when a greater number of clinics closed their doors.
Keywords: Abortion; Clinic Closures; Birth Rates; Difference-in-Differences; Racial Disparities
JEL Codes: I11; I28; J13; J18
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Distance to nearest clinic (I11) | Abortion rates (J13) |
| Distance to nearest clinic (I11) | Birth rates (J11) |
| Clinic closures (J65) | Distance to nearest clinic (I11) |
| Increased distance to nearest clinic (I14) | Racial disparities in birth rates (J15) |
| Distance to nearest clinic (I11) | Congestion at remaining clinics (L91) |