%0 Report
        %A Farin, Sherajum Monira
%A Hoehn-Velasco, Lauren
%A Pesko, Michael
        %T The Impact of Legal Abortion on Maternal Mortality
        %D 2022
        %8 2022 Oct
        %I Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        %C Bonn
        %7 IZA Discussion Paper
        %N 15657
        %U https://www.iza.org/publications/dp15657
        %X Legal abortion has recently been suggested as an essential healthcare service. In this study, we consider whether abortion legalization over 1969-1973 improved women's health, measured by maternal mortality. Our event-study results indicate that legal abortion substantially lowered non-white maternal mortality by 30-40%, with 113 non-white maternal deaths averted nationally in the first year abortion became legal. We also find that early state-level legalizations were crucial, and more influential than the Roe v. Wade decision itself.
        %K maternal health
%K Roe v. Wade
%K maternal mortality
%K legal abortion
%K abortion