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Published on: January 12, 2018
Changes in Frequency and Health of Live Births Following State Abortion Bans
Maeve E Wallace1, Yin Wang1, Charles Stoecker1
1Maeve E. Wallace is with the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, University of Arizona, Tucson. At the time of this study, Yin Wang and Charles Stoecker were with the Celia Scott Weatherhead School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA.
Abstract:
Objectives. To quantify the impact of state abortion bans on trends in fertility and preterm birth following the June 2022 US Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health Organization. Methods. We tested for changes in birth rates and preterm birth rates occurring in the first 18 months following the Dobbs decision by fitting 2-way fixed effects and staggered difference-in-difference models to compare trends in states that banned abortion and those that did not. Results. We detected a statistically significant increase in the birth rate and preterm birth rate among non-Hispanic (NH) Black women above what would be expected in the absence of a ban, averaging a 3.5% increase in the birth rate and 2.1% higher incidence of preterm birth. Impacts were similar in analyses limited to births to women with Medicaid coverage, where trends among NH Black women in states that banned abortion were significantly elevated. Conclusions. The emerging impact of state laws that ban abortion has been uneven, with trends in birth rates and preterm birth increasing especially among NH Black women in states that banned abortion. (Am J Public Health. 2026;116(3):345-350. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2025.308355).
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