"The Impact of Denying a Wanted Abortion on Women and Children"

Abstract: This paper investigates the immediate and long-term effects of denying women a wanted abortion on women and children using high-quality administrative data from Colombia and credibly exogenous variation in abortion access. Women facing barriers to abortion can file a tutela, which is randomly assigned to judges. We find that female judges are 20 p.p. (32%) less likely to deny abortion than male judges and use the sex of the assigned judge as an instrument for abortion denial. Denying a wanted abortion has immediate and lasting detrimental effects. Death records reveal that it more than doubles women’s risk of dying in the subsequent nine months, primarily due to septicemia and infections, suggesting that women undergo unsafe procedures to terminate unwanted pregnancies. Additionally, many women carry the pregnancy to term, with abortion denial doubling the likelihood of childbearing within nine months. Tracking outcomes up to 15 years later, women denied abortions are more likely to experience long-term health complications and raise children as single mothers. They attain lower educational levels, have reduced labor-force participation, experience increased poverty, and rely more on welfare assistance. These negative impacts extend to their children, who are more likely to grow up in poverty following their mother’s abortion denial. For example, older children born before their mother sought an abortion have lower school attendance and higher engagement in child labor.