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Population Policy: Abortion and Modern Contraception are Substitutes

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  • Grant Miller
  • Christine Valente

Abstract

There is longstanding debate in population policy about the relationship between modern contraception and abortion. Although theory predicts that they should be substitutes, the existing body of empirical evidence is difficult to interpret. In this paper, Nepal’s 2004 legalization of abortion provision and subsequent expansion of abortion services are analysed. Using four waves of rich individual-level data representative of fertile-age Nepalese women, robust evidence of substitution is found between modern contraception and abortion. This finding suggests that an effective strategy for reducing expensive and potentially unsafe abortions may be to expand the supply of modern contraceptives.

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  • Grant Miller & Christine Valente, 2016. "Population Policy: Abortion and Modern Contraception are Substitutes," Working Papers id:10758, eSocialSciences.
    • Handle: RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:10758
    Note: Institutional Papers
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    Cited by:

    1. Clarke, Damian & Salinas, Viviana, 2020. "Access to The Emergency Contraceptive Pill Improves Women's Health: Evidence from Chile," IZA Discussion Papers 13134, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Nuevo-Chiquero, Ana & Pino, Francisco J., 2019. "To Pill or Not to Pill? Access to Emergency Contraception and Contraceptive Behaviour," IZA Discussion Papers 12076, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Amanda J. Felkey & Kristina M. Lybecker, 2018. "Do Restrictions Beget Responsibility? The Case of U.S. Abortion Legislation," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 63(1), pages 59-70, March.
    4. Catia Nicodemo & Sonia Oreffice & Climent Quintana-Domeque, 2022. "Correlates of repeat abortions and their spacing: Evidence from registry data in Spain," Papers 2208.05567, arXiv.org, revised May 2023.
    5. Sonia Bhalotra & Damian Clarke & Joseph Flavian Gomes & Atheendar Venkataramani, 2023. "Maternal Mortality and Women’s Political Power," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 21(5), pages 2172-2208.
    6. Bhalotra, Sonia R. & Clarke, Damian & Gomes, Joseph & Venkataramani, Atheendar, 2018. "Maternal Mortality and Women's Political Participation," IZA Discussion Papers 11590, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. David A. Sánchez-Páez & José Antonio Ortega, 2021. "Has contraceptive use at pregnancy an effect on the odds of spontaneous termination and induced abortion? Evidence from Demographic and Health Surveys," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 44(37), pages 879-898.
    8. Bhalotra, Sonia R. & Clarke, Damian & Mühlrad, Hanna & Fernandez Sierra, Manuel, 2021. "US Presidential Party Switches Are Mirrored in Global Maternal Mortality," IZA Discussion Papers 14915, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. David A Sánchez-Páez & José Antonio Ortega, 2019. "Reported patterns of pregnancy termination from Demographic and Health Surveys," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(8), pages 1-25, August.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Abortion; Contraception; Nepal; contraceptives; Nepalese women; Nepal; population policy; legalization; individual-level data; fertile-age;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • N35 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - Asia including Middle East

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