Abortion Legalization in Uruguay: Effects on Adolescent Fertility

Autores
Cabella Vaz, Wanda; Velázquez Battistessa, Cecilia
Año de publicación
2022
Idioma
inglés
Tipo de recurso
artículo
Estado
versión publicada
Descripción
The Latin America and the Caribbean adolescent fertility rate is among the highest in the world: about 1.7 million children are born to teen mothers every year, and most of them are declared as being unintended pregnancies. The region also has the highest rate of unintended pregnancy of any world region, and nearly half of such pregnancies end in abortion. However, fewer than 18% of the region’s women live in countries where abortion is broadly legal. This paper estimates the causal effect of abortion legalization on adolescent fertility in Uruguay, using official data on legal abortions provided after the 2012 reform. We employed a difference-in-differences strategy, classifying states by whether they are responsive or unresponsive to the reform. The results suggest that abortion reform had a negative impact on the adolescent birth rate by 2.5 to 2.8 births per thousand adolescents aged 15–19 (4% decrease from the preintervention average). Additionally, we exploited variation in reform implementation intensity through the estimation of fixed-effect linear regression models and found consistent results. Our findings are robust to controlling for a concurrent large-scale program of contraceptive implants. We conclude that legislation aimed at enhancing rights and reducing avoidable deaths and complications from unsafe abortions may also have spillover effects that help reduce adolescent fertility.
Fil: Cabella Vaz, Wanda. Universidad de la Republica. Facultad de Ciencias Sociales.; Uruguay
Fil: Velázquez Battistessa, Cecilia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Económicas. Departamento de Ciencias Económicas. Centro de Estudios Distributivos Laborales y Sociales; Argentina. Centro de Investigaciones Económicas; Uruguay
Materia
ABORTION LEGALIZATION
LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN
TEENAGE FERTILITY
Nivel de accesibilidad
acceso abierto
Condiciones de uso
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/ar/
Repositorio
CONICET Digital (CONICET)
Institución
Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
OAI Identificador
oai:ri.conicet.gov.ar:11336/214636
Acceder
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network_acronym_str CONICETDig
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network_name_str CONICET Digital (CONICET)
spelling Abortion Legalization in Uruguay: Effects on Adolescent FertilityCabella Vaz, WandaVelázquez Battistessa, CeciliaABORTION LEGALIZATIONLATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEANTEENAGE FERTILITYhttps://purl.org/becyt/ford/5.2https://purl.org/becyt/ford/5https://purl.org/becyt/ford/5.4https://purl.org/becyt/ford/5The Latin America and the Caribbean adolescent fertility rate is among the highest in the world: about 1.7 million children are born to teen mothers every year, and most of them are declared as being unintended pregnancies. The region also has the highest rate of unintended pregnancy of any world region, and nearly half of such pregnancies end in abortion. However, fewer than 18% of the region’s women live in countries where abortion is broadly legal. This paper estimates the causal effect of abortion legalization on adolescent fertility in Uruguay, using official data on legal abortions provided after the 2012 reform. We employed a difference-in-differences strategy, classifying states by whether they are responsive or unresponsive to the reform. The results suggest that abortion reform had a negative impact on the adolescent birth rate by 2.5 to 2.8 births per thousand adolescents aged 15–19 (4% decrease from the preintervention average). Additionally, we exploited variation in reform implementation intensity through the estimation of fixed-effect linear regression models and found consistent results. Our findings are robust to controlling for a concurrent large-scale program of contraceptive implants. We conclude that legislation aimed at enhancing rights and reducing avoidable deaths and complications from unsafe abortions may also have spillover effects that help reduce adolescent fertility.Fil: Cabella Vaz, Wanda. Universidad de la Republica. Facultad de Ciencias Sociales.; UruguayFil: Velázquez Battistessa, Cecilia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Económicas. Departamento de Ciencias Económicas. Centro de Estudios Distributivos Laborales y Sociales; Argentina. Centro de Investigaciones Económicas; UruguayCentro de Estudios Distributivos, Laborales y Sociales2022-06info:eu-repo/semantics/articleinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersionhttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501info:ar-repo/semantics/articuloapplication/pdfapplication/pdfhttp://hdl.handle.net/11336/214636Cabella Vaz, Wanda; Velázquez Battistessa, Cecilia; Abortion Legalization in Uruguay: Effects on Adolescent Fertility; Centro de Estudios Distributivos, Laborales y Sociales; Documentos de trabajo (CEDLAS); 298; 6-2022; 1-381853-0168CONICET DigitalCONICETenginfo:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/url/https://www.cedlas.econo.unlp.edu.ar/wp/no-298/info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccesshttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/ar/reponame:CONICET Digital (CONICET)instname:Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas2025-09-03T09:44:29Zoai:ri.conicet.gov.ar:11336/214636instacron:CONICETInstitucionalhttp://ri.conicet.gov.ar/Organismo científico-tecnológicoNo correspondehttp://ri.conicet.gov.ar/oai/requestdasensio@conicet.gov.ar; lcarlino@conicet.gov.arArgentinaNo correspondeNo correspondeNo correspondeopendoar:34982025-09-03 09:44:29.51CONICET Digital (CONICET) - Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicasfalse
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Abortion Legalization in Uruguay: Effects on Adolescent Fertility
title Abortion Legalization in Uruguay: Effects on Adolescent Fertility
spellingShingle Abortion Legalization in Uruguay: Effects on Adolescent Fertility
Cabella Vaz, Wanda
ABORTION LEGALIZATION
LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN
TEENAGE FERTILITY
title_short Abortion Legalization in Uruguay: Effects on Adolescent Fertility
title_full Abortion Legalization in Uruguay: Effects on Adolescent Fertility
title_fullStr Abortion Legalization in Uruguay: Effects on Adolescent Fertility
title_full_unstemmed Abortion Legalization in Uruguay: Effects on Adolescent Fertility
title_sort Abortion Legalization in Uruguay: Effects on Adolescent Fertility
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Cabella Vaz, Wanda
Velázquez Battistessa, Cecilia
author Cabella Vaz, Wanda
author_facet Cabella Vaz, Wanda
Velázquez Battistessa, Cecilia
author_role author
author2 Velázquez Battistessa, Cecilia
author2_role author
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv ABORTION LEGALIZATION
LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN
TEENAGE FERTILITY
topic ABORTION LEGALIZATION
LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN
TEENAGE FERTILITY
purl_subject.fl_str_mv https://purl.org/becyt/ford/5.2
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/5
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/5.4
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/5
dc.description.none.fl_txt_mv The Latin America and the Caribbean adolescent fertility rate is among the highest in the world: about 1.7 million children are born to teen mothers every year, and most of them are declared as being unintended pregnancies. The region also has the highest rate of unintended pregnancy of any world region, and nearly half of such pregnancies end in abortion. However, fewer than 18% of the region’s women live in countries where abortion is broadly legal. This paper estimates the causal effect of abortion legalization on adolescent fertility in Uruguay, using official data on legal abortions provided after the 2012 reform. We employed a difference-in-differences strategy, classifying states by whether they are responsive or unresponsive to the reform. The results suggest that abortion reform had a negative impact on the adolescent birth rate by 2.5 to 2.8 births per thousand adolescents aged 15–19 (4% decrease from the preintervention average). Additionally, we exploited variation in reform implementation intensity through the estimation of fixed-effect linear regression models and found consistent results. Our findings are robust to controlling for a concurrent large-scale program of contraceptive implants. We conclude that legislation aimed at enhancing rights and reducing avoidable deaths and complications from unsafe abortions may also have spillover effects that help reduce adolescent fertility.
Fil: Cabella Vaz, Wanda. Universidad de la Republica. Facultad de Ciencias Sociales.; Uruguay
Fil: Velázquez Battistessa, Cecilia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Económicas. Departamento de Ciencias Económicas. Centro de Estudios Distributivos Laborales y Sociales; Argentina. Centro de Investigaciones Económicas; Uruguay
description The Latin America and the Caribbean adolescent fertility rate is among the highest in the world: about 1.7 million children are born to teen mothers every year, and most of them are declared as being unintended pregnancies. The region also has the highest rate of unintended pregnancy of any world region, and nearly half of such pregnancies end in abortion. However, fewer than 18% of the region’s women live in countries where abortion is broadly legal. This paper estimates the causal effect of abortion legalization on adolescent fertility in Uruguay, using official data on legal abortions provided after the 2012 reform. We employed a difference-in-differences strategy, classifying states by whether they are responsive or unresponsive to the reform. The results suggest that abortion reform had a negative impact on the adolescent birth rate by 2.5 to 2.8 births per thousand adolescents aged 15–19 (4% decrease from the preintervention average). Additionally, we exploited variation in reform implementation intensity through the estimation of fixed-effect linear regression models and found consistent results. Our findings are robust to controlling for a concurrent large-scale program of contraceptive implants. We conclude that legislation aimed at enhancing rights and reducing avoidable deaths and complications from unsafe abortions may also have spillover effects that help reduce adolescent fertility.
publishDate 2022
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2022-06
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501
info:ar-repo/semantics/articulo
format article
status_str publishedVersion
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv http://hdl.handle.net/11336/214636
Cabella Vaz, Wanda; Velázquez Battistessa, Cecilia; Abortion Legalization in Uruguay: Effects on Adolescent Fertility; Centro de Estudios Distributivos, Laborales y Sociales; Documentos de trabajo (CEDLAS); 298; 6-2022; 1-38
1853-0168
CONICET Digital
CONICET
url http://hdl.handle.net/11336/214636
identifier_str_mv Cabella Vaz, Wanda; Velázquez Battistessa, Cecilia; Abortion Legalization in Uruguay: Effects on Adolescent Fertility; Centro de Estudios Distributivos, Laborales y Sociales; Documentos de trabajo (CEDLAS); 298; 6-2022; 1-38
1853-0168
CONICET Digital
CONICET
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv eng
language eng
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/url/https://www.cedlas.econo.unlp.edu.ar/wp/no-298/
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/ar/
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
rights_invalid_str_mv https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/ar/
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv application/pdf
application/pdf
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv Centro de Estudios Distributivos, Laborales y Sociales
publisher.none.fl_str_mv Centro de Estudios Distributivos, Laborales y Sociales
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:CONICET Digital (CONICET)
instname:Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
reponame_str CONICET Digital (CONICET)
collection CONICET Digital (CONICET)
instname_str Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
repository.name.fl_str_mv CONICET Digital (CONICET) - Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
repository.mail.fl_str_mv dasensio@conicet.gov.ar; lcarlino@conicet.gov.ar
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score 13.13397

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