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THE IMPACT OF PROVIDER AVAILABILITY ON ABORTION DEMAND
Author(s) -
BROWN ROBERT W.,
JEWELL R. TODD
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
contemporary economic policy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.454
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1465-7287
pISSN - 1074-3529
DOI - 10.1111/j.1465-7287.1996.tb00616.x
Subject(s) - abortion , fertility , business , economics , pregnancy , demographic economics , medicine , environmental health , population , genetics , biology
Variations in the availability of abortion providers may impact the demand for abortions since greater provider availability reduces the travel cost associated with acquiring an abortion. This paper applies a fertility‐control model to estimate the responsiveness of abortion demand to travel‐cost variations using county‐level data on the state of Texas. Abortion rates as well as pregnancy rates appear to be sensitive to availability‐induced variations in the travel cost of abortion services. In particular, the results suggest that residents in counties with longer travel distances to the nearest abortion provider have lower abortion rates and lower pregnancy rates.