We study how abortion subsidies affect abortion take-up using administrative data from Israel covering the universe of legal abortions. Leveraging a reform that expanded eligibility for government funding for abortion, we find that the subsidy significantly increased abortion, with the largest effects among young women from backgrounds with strict views on abortion.
Existing evidence suggests that abortion rates rise under the MCP, but the direct effect of U.S. funding restrictions on supply and use of family planning has received less attention. By studying PLGHA’s impact on health service delivery providers and women in eight sub-Saharan African countries, we are able to fill this gap. We find that health facilities provide fewer family planning services, including emergency contraception, and that women are less likely to use contraception and more likely to have given birth recently under the policy.
We empirically examined patterns of modern contraception use, pregnancies, and abortion among women in 26 countries in sub-Saharan Africa in response to the reinstatement and subsequent repeal of the Mexico City Policy across three presidential administrations (Bill Clinton, George W Bush, and Barack Obama). Our findings suggest that curbing US assistance to family planning organisations, especially those that consider abortion as a method of family planning, increases abortion prevalence in sub-Saharan African countries most affected by the policy.