The effects of short-term variation in abortion funding on pregnancy outcomes

The appropriations for North Carolina's abortion fund have proven inadequate during five of the years between 1980 and 1994. This on-again, off-again funding pattern provides a natural experiment for estimating the short-run effect of changes in the cost of abortions on the number of abortions to indigent women. Using an unusually detailed dataset, we estimate the effects of funding termination on the monthly abortion and birth rates. Overall, approximately one-third of pregnancies that would have resulted in an abortion, had state funds been available, are instead carried to term.