IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp17760.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

From Access to Wellness: Early Life Exposure to Abortion Legalization and the Next Generation’s Health

Author

Listed:
  • Noghanibehambari, Hamid

    (University of Texas at Austin)

  • Slusky, David

    (University of Kansas)

  • Vu, Hoa

    (Northwestern University)

Abstract

We examine the multigenerational impacts of legalized abortion in the United States by analyzing how early-life exposure to this policy shift affects birth outcomes in the next generation. Using event study and two-way fixed effects models, we link maternal early-life exposure to legal abortion with improved birth outcomes in the subsequent generation, including higher birth weights and reduced rates of low birth weight. Our analysis of the mechanisms shows that these improvements in birth outcomes are not driven by changes in maternal racial or age composition within the treated generation. Instead, enhanced educational attainment and increased prenatal care utilization among the treated generation appear to play a critical role. Our results highlight the far-reaching implications of reproductive health policies, especially relevant in the post-Dobbs era, where access may once again become constrained for many.

Suggested Citation

  • Noghanibehambari, Hamid & Slusky, David & Vu, Hoa, 2025. "From Access to Wellness: Early Life Exposure to Abortion Legalization and the Next Generation’s Health," IZA Discussion Papers 17760, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17760
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp17760.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    intergenerational effects; infant health; Roe v. Wade; Abortion; Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H75 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - State and Local Government: Health, Education, and Welfare
    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J18 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Public Policy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17760. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.