The Effect of Child Support Enforcement on Abortion in the United States

Objectives. This project aims to answer a critically important question of public policy: Does effective child support enforcement lead to a change in the incidence of abortion across the United States? Methods. Using state-level data collected from 1978-2003 from a variety of sources, we employ fixed effects regression analysis to examine whether financial security as measured by five types of child support enforcement effectiveness impacts abortion outcomes. Results. We find that child support enforcement effectiveness decreases the incidence of abortion as measured by the abortion rate, but not the abortion ratio. Conclusions. Income transfer policies such as child support enforcement can affect certain fertility outcomes such as abortion rates across the states.