Quantifying the impact of targeted regulation of abortion provider laws on US abortion rates: a multi-state assessment

摘要

Objectives. In this paper, we estimate the average effect of two common TRAP (targeted regulation of abortion providers) laws on abortion rates using a novel longitudinal database of state-level policy shifts. Study design. We merged several sources of policy, abortion, and sociodemographic data from 1991–2014. We used a difference-in-differences design to control for time-fixed state-level characteristics and common factors affecting abortion trends across all states, as well as measured time-varying state-level factors that may impact TRAP enforcement and abortion rates. We used generalized linear models with cluster-robust standard errors to obtain our estimates.