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Does parental consent for birth control affect underage pregnancy rates? The case of Texas

Sourafel Girma1, David Paton

  • 1School of Economics, Sir Clive Granger Building, Nottingham University, University Park, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK, Sourafel.Girma@nottingham.ac.uk.

Demography
|June 15, 2013
PubMed

Insights

Texas

Area of Science:

  • Public Health
  • Demography
  • Health Policy

Background:

  • The 2003 Texas parental consent mandate for state-funded birth control aimed to reduce underage pregnancies.
  • Previous studies conjectured this policy would increase teen pregnancies.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To empirically evaluate the impact of the Texas parental consent requirement on underage pregnancies.
  • To assess the effect of this policy on family planning clinic attendance among minors.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized state- and county-level data for analysis.
  • Employed difference-in-difference estimation combined with propensity score-weighted regressions.
  • Compared outcomes in counties with and without state-funded family planning clinics.

Main Results:

  • The parental consent mandate significantly decreased teen attendance at family planning clinics.
  • No statistically significant increase in underage pregnancies was observed following the policy implementation.

Conclusions:

  • The Texas parental consent policy for birth control did not lead to an increase in underage pregnancies.
  • The policy resulted in reduced access to family planning services for minors.

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