The impact of provider availability and legal restrictions on the demand for abortions by young women

The purpose of the present study is to determine the factors that affect the abortion decision at the individual level. Using individual-level data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) and state-level data on abortion providers and legal restrictions on abortions, results suggest that legal restrictions had no statistically significant effects on the abortion decision, but that the number of per capita abortion providers does affect the decision whether or not to abort a fetus. Socioeconomic characteristics, such as age and race, also have effects on the abortion decision.