REPRODUCING ECONOMIC EQUALITY
ABHIGYA ASMI / SEPTEMBER 17, 2022
An examination into the consequences of abortion access and the subsequent effect on women’s education, health and labor market participation.
he decision to have or not to have a child is critical to a woman's economic as well as overall well-being. In a historic and far-reaching decision, the US Supreme Court effectively reversed Roe v. Wade on June 24, 2022, revoking the constitutional right to abortion. The ruling means that abortion rights will be restricted in almost half of the US states, with other limitations to follow. This move will not only have severe repercussions for women across the country, who will now need to resort to unsafe practices but also have ramifications for continuing education and employment, which will lead to additional outcomes.
Most researchers took advantage of the varied impacts of this case in the early 1970s to identify causal effects of access to abortions. Prior to the judgement, abortion was legal in five states, with a handful of other states allowing it in limited circumstances. Moving on, abortion became widely accessible in the majority of the country following the 1973 Roe v. Wade judgement. This change allowed two natural experiments to take place: a treatment (an independent event) which was of legalisation in the original five states, followed by a subsequent treatment when the remaining states modified their legality status after Roe. This kind of ‘natural’ or ‘quasi’ experimental method’s treatment is as effective as that of a randomised controlled trial, which in turn is an experiment conducted in the field in which treatment is randomly assigned.
T
These outcomes reverberate through their lives, affecting marriage patterns, educational attainment, labour force participation, and earnings.
When applied to study the causal effects of abortion access, this design demonstrates that abortion access does, in fact, profoundly affect women’s lives. It determines whether, when, and under what circumstances they become mothers. These outcomes reverberate through their lives, affecting marriage patterns, educational attainment, labour force participation, and earnings. The methodology used allows the states where abortion access didn’t change to serve as a ‘control’ group that accounts for other factors that influenced fertility and women’s lives during Roe v. Wade era. A study (Levine, Staiger, Kane, and Zimmerman, 1999) by a group of economists estimated that legalisation of abortion in repeal states, where abortion ban was lifted, resulted in a 4-11% drop in births in those states relative to rest of the country. It was also found that these effects were profound for teens and women of colour. According to Farin, Hoehn-Velasco, and Pesko (2021), legalising abortion reduced
Credits: Michele's spiritual art via pinterest
maternal mortality among black women by 30-40%. By proving the direct causal link between abortion access and demographic characteristics and their subsequent health outcomes, this analysis revolutionised the research area and made it possible to examine the ripple effects of abortion access on women's lives and their surroundings.
Access to abortion improved women’s capacity to successfully delay childbearing, drastically reducing opportunity cost of pursuing higher education. As a result women were able to follow through their educational pursuits. Though completing high school and graduating college delay the prospects of full-time job, gains in formal education and specialisation often lead to a broader range of career opportunities and overall increase in income. It tends to improve long-term economic stability of an individual. Additionally, young women who had access to contraceptives before deciding whether to continue further schooling obtained an additional year of education before the age of 30 (Bailey et al., 2012). Women of less privileged backgrounds but with higher academic ability benefited most in terms of years of formal schooling, which aided in improving their socioeconomic standing (Bailey et al., 2012). Considering these facts, teen mothers continue to be at a disadvantage in terms of completing high school as compared to those who wait till after the age of 30 to have a child. Instead, the former may be working a minimum wage job to support their families and may not be willing to wait for a higher-paying job, therefore they may be regarded to be on a career path in which higher education is irrelevant.
Credits: The Devastating Economic Impacts of an Abortion Ban via Pinterest
Furthermore, women's expectations of career trajectories appear to shift as they are able to acquire steady and full-time employment. They are more keen to seek and attain jobs and professional standing in fields formerly dominated by men. This was substantiated by statistical studies that showed after Roe v Wade, a woman's likelihood of working additional hours increased, especially for black women. However, by overturning the decision, the state increases a woman's chances of having an unplanned childbirth, depriving her of high-paying job opportunities, and therefore advancing in career trajectories or achieving in male dominated fields. Even for a woman who is already in a stable and high paying job, abortion ban can force her out of the labour market due to child rearing, widening the pay gap between her and her childless colleagues if she decides to return to work after an extended period.
Even if the childless counterpart has less experience, the phenomenon of ‘family gap’, the difference between the wages of women with and without children, results in salary and responsibility cuts. Nonetheless, this is regarded as a privileged position. Women with low incomes and informal occupations have no possibility of re-entering the labour market and don’t have the same protection laws for working mothers as is in formal sectors. This situation will not only result in further financial difficulties and, as a result, the possibility of falling deeper into poverty, but it will also mean that those mothers will not be able to guarantee economic advantages to their children.
Giving birth instead of accessing a wanted abortion resulted in a nearly fourfold increase in the likelihood that a woman’s household income was below the Federal Poverty Level, measured by household income and size, and was more likely to report not being able to cover basic living needs. The factors listed above are stepping stones toward economic stability for themselves and their families. Additionally, when we consider the long-term repercussions of restricting abortion rights, we observe that it significantly hinders a country’s economy. During the demographic transition, decline in mortality rate causes population explosion, and if fertility is not contained, the growing population may overwhelm available fixed factors such as land and even reproducible factors such as machinery, equipment etc. Considering the obvious that land is not growing parallel to population, future generations will find it difficult to sustain themselves.
This, however, can be avoided with access to abortion. More equitable access to abortion care allows women to exercise greater agency over their body and their childbearing. As a result, they are better able to invest in their own human capital and improve their economic well-being. Furthermore technological development can increase the return on human capital, which can lead to lower fertility when families consciously decide smaller family sizes with greater investments per child. In addition, demographic change may also lead to behavioural change. Lower mortality and longer life spans may affect retirement and savings decisions , as a longer life span may result in working for a longer period of time or increased savings, resulting in a better retirement plan (Bloom et al. 2003, 2007).
When broken down by race and socioeconomic background, research consistently shows that abortion has a greater economic impact on women of colour and lower-income groups than on white and privileged women.
Credits: The future abortionists of America- Claire Merchlinsky via Pinterest
When broken down by race and socioeconomic background, research consistently shows that abortion has a greater economic impact on women of colour and lower-income groups than on white and privileged women. The overturning of Roe v. Wade means that women will have to travel to other states to have abortions; this increase in cost will only hurt women in lower-income groups, increasing access inequality. Women who cannot afford this increased cost will be forced to bear the consequences of an unplanned
pregnancy, which has higher costs associated with less family stability and poorer child outcomes. Even notwithstanding the negative social and economic repercussions , above all, the right to determine and exercise one’s own reproductive choices should lie in one’s own hands and not with a government who doesn't have to bear the brunt of these said choices. Bodily autonomy is a prerequisite for gender equality and the enjoyment of all human rights, including the right to health and the right to live free from violence, and eradicating gender inequalities in social norms and practises is critical. Denying these rights not only sets back a country but also one’s thoughts.
Keywords:
abortion, ramification, quasi experimental method, unplanned childbirth,labor market, Federal Poverty Level, economic repercussions
References
Bernstein, A., Jones, K., & Jones, A. B. and K. (2020, August 10). The economic effects of abortion access: A review of the evidence. IWPR. https://iwpr.org/iwpr-issues/reproductive-health/the-economic-effects-of-abortion-access-a-review-of-the-evidence/
Myers, C. K., & Welch, M. (2022, August 8). What can economic research tell us about the effect of abortion access on women's lives? Brookings. https://www.brookings.edu/research/what-can-economic-research-tell-us-about-the-effect-of-abortion-access-on-womens-lives/
Sonfield, A., Hasstedt, K., Kavanaugh, M. L., & Anderson, R. (2016, March 15). The social and economic benefits of women's ability to determine whether and when to have children. Guttmacher Institute. https://www.guttmacher.org/report/social-and-economic-benefits-womens-ability-determine-whether-and-when-have-children
Bernstein, A., Jones, K., & Jones, A. B. and K. (2020, August 10). The economic effects of contraceptive access: A review of the evidence. IWPR. https://iwpr.org/iwpr-issues/reproductive-health/the-economic-effects-of-contraceptive-access-a-review-of-the-evidence/
Foster, D. G., Biggs, M. A., Ralph, L., Gerdts, C., Roberts, S., & Glymour, M. M. (2018). Socioeconomic outcomes of women who receive and women who are denied wanted abortions in the United States. American Journal of Public Health, 112(9), 1290–1296. https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.2017.304247
DISCOVER MORE STORIES
Breaking the Bias :Women in Entrepreneurship
AUGUST 27
BY URMILA UDHALIKAR
Khadi: Moving Towards Sustainability
August 20
BY CHESTA COPRA
The Real Cost of Profiteering of Life-Saving Drugs
August 06
BY QAREENA CHOUDHARY
The views published in this journal are those of the individual author/s and do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of the team behind Beyond Margins, or the Department of Economics of Sophia College for Women (Autonomous), or Sophia College for Women (Autonomous) in general. The list of sources may not be exhaustive. If you’d like to have the complete list, email us at beyondmarginssophia@gmail.com