The Impact of Being Denied a Wanted Abortion on Women and Their Children
利用哥伦比亚行政数据和法官性别随机分配，研究发现被拒绝堕胎的妇女在短期内死亡风险上升，长期面临健康、教育、就业和贫困等多方面负面后果，其已有子女的学业和劳动参与也受影响。
Abstract This article examines the impact of denying a wanted abortion on women and children in Colombia using high-quality administrative microdata and credibly exogenous variation in abortion access. Women can seek legal abortions through a tutela, with cases randomly assigned to judges. Female judges are 20 percentage points (32%) less likely to deny abortion cases than are male judges, and we use the judge’s sex as an instrument for abortion denial. Denial of a wanted abortion has both immediate and lasting effects. It increases a woman’s risk of death by 2.5 percentage points within nine months, mainly due to unsafe abortion procedures, and raises the likelihood of carrying the pregnancy to term by 31 percentage points. Tracking outcomes up to 15 years later, we find that women denied an abortion experience more health issues, lower educational attainment, reduced labor force participation, and higher rates of single motherhood, poverty, and reliance on government assistance. Existing children, born before their mother sought an abortion, are less likely to attend school and are more likely to work.