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Abstract
Using data from Minnesota, Missouri and Indiana, I investigated several allegations about the effects of laws that mandate parental involvement in a minor's abortion. First, opponents of parental involvement laws have contended that such laws increase birth rates for minors. Statistical models comparing changes in the birth rate for minors with changes for two groups of older women detect no support for this claim. Second, advocates of parental involvement laws credit the laws with decreasing teenage abortion. These conclusions may be too hasty. While in-state abortion rates evidently decline for minors more than for other age groups when the laws take effect, interstate abortion travel may increase, indicating that in-state abortion rates should not be interpreted as overall abortion rates. The finding concerning travel is preliminary since only one state, Missouri, had even part of the data needed to investigate changes in interstate travel patterns associated with the law. Yet these preliminary results (and calculations based on models from the other study states) suggest that interstate travel is a more important explanation for declines in in-state abortion rates than has been acknowledged. Third, opponents of the laws have argued that the laws delay minors' abortions. Advocates of the laws dispute this claim, pointing to a study from Minnesota that found no evidence of any delay associated with the law, when delay was measured by the proportions of in-state abortions performed at later than twelve weeks' gestation. Two caveats may be appropriate in interpreting that study. First, as noted, in-state abortions differ from out-of-state abortions. Preliminary results from Missouri indicate an important relationship between interstate travel and delay: minors seeking early abortions were disproportionately likely to leave the state, perhaps because courts there are strict about granting judicial bypasses. Second, findings concerning delay may be sensitive to the cutoff point selected. In Minnesota, for example, a significant number of minors' in-state abortions were evidently delayed by the law past the medically significant eight weeks' gestation mark, although the law did not delay a significant number of minors' abortions past twelve weeks' gestation.
