Assessing Plan B

The Effect of the Morning After Pill on Children and Women

Dados Bibliográficos

ID9716951
AutoresAndrea Bentancor (Ministry of Finance, Chile), Damian Clarke (0009-0000-9113-2188, Universidad de Santiago de Chile)
Ano2017
Volume127
Fascículo607
Páginas2525-2552
Data de publicação2017-12-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoThe Economic Journal (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0013-0133 • E-ISSN: 1468-0297
EditoraOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1111/ecoj.12390
OpenAlexW3124470167
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas4
Referências citadas28

We test whether the availability of the emergency contraceptive (‘morning after’) pill in the absence of legalised abortion can have effects similar to those of other large‐scale contraceptive reforms. To do so, we examine a quasi‐experimental policy reform occurring in Chile in 2008. Using vital statistics covering all births and foetal deaths over the period 2006–12, we show that the availability of the emergency contraceptive pill reduces pregnancy and early gestation foetal death, which we argue proxies for illegal abortion. Our results suggest that in the context of Chile, a country with among the most restrictive abortion laws in the world, the emergency contraceptive pill had effects around a third as large as various abortion reforms observed in other contexts

Abortion · Context (archaeology · Emergency contraception · Environmental health · Family planning · Geography · Morning · Obstetrics · Pill · Population · Pregnancy · Research methodology · Sociology · Demography · Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics · Global Maternal and Child Health · Medicine · Nursing · Reproductive Health and Contraception