The Impact of Legal Abortion on Maternal Health : Looking to the Past to Inform the Present

From 1959 to 1980, abortion-related mortality declined by 97%, and maternal mortality fell by 86%. In this study, we question whether the legalization of abortion over 1969-1973 explains a portion of this maternal mortality decline. We exploit state-level variation in changes to abortion laws predating Roe vs. Wade, as well as the effect of Roe vs. Wade on states with differential baseline abortion demand. Our results suggest that legal abortion reduced non-white maternal mortality by 28-40%, with little impact on overall or white maternal mortality. Our findings also indicate that early state-level legalizations were crucial and more important than the Roe v. Wade decision itself. Then, we explore the effect of legal abortion on infant health and delivery characteristics. Legal abortion increases the average (maternal) age at delivery, and for white deliveries, it leads to healthier infants and a larger share of births to married mothers