Ease of Access

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Introduction

Introduction

What percentage of women travel out of state to get abortion care?

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Does the percentage of women traveling out of state for abortion care change across state or time?

A larger percentage of women are traveling out of state for care over time.

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When more women travel for care, more unwanted pregnancies end in abortion.

When fewer women travel for care, more unwanted pregnancies end in birth.

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Observations

Observations

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Citations

Sources

Political Affiliations

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Citations

Political Parties and Abortion Access

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Does a state’s political party impact abortion rates?

Does a state’s political party impact the percentage of women traveling for care?

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Observations

Observations

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How many abortion bans were there in 2018? Is this correlated with state party?

Are there more or fewer bans in 2022? Is this still correlated with state party?

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Observations

Observations

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States with more bans have more women leaving for care.

Republican states tend to have more bans than democrat states.

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Citations

Sources

Provider Access

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Which states have more providers? How does this impact abortion access?

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Observations

Observations

There is a strong correlation between counties without providers and women without providers.

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Citations

Sources

Abortion Rates

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How do birth rates and abortion rates fluctuate over time?

Observations

Observations

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How does state spending on abortion impact abortion rates?

Are uninsured women more or less likely to get abortions?

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Observations

Observations

Education

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How does education level impact abortion rates?

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Findings

Findings

HS, Female

HS, Male

College, Female

College, Male

Conclusion

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Conclusions

Abortion Access in the US

Conclusions

Recommended Extended Research

Additional Resources

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Definition of variables

The World Bank Database:

  • Birth rate: Birth rate, crude (per 1,000 people) in the US

  • Below median income: Proportion of people in the US living below 50 percent of median income (%)

  • Highest Edu BA, Female: Percentage of US population age 25+ whose highest level of education is Bachelor’s or equivalent (ISCED 6), female

  • Highest Edu BA, Male: Percentage of US population age 25+ whose highest level of education is Bachelor’s or equivalent (ISCED 6), male

  • Highest Edu USE, Female: Percentage of US population age 25+ whose highest level of education is upper secondary, female

  • Highest Edu USE, Male: Percentage of US population age 25+ whose highest level of education is upper secondary, male

Guttmacher Institute Database:

  • Abortion rate by state of residence: (no. abortions per 1,000 women aged 15-44) by state of residence in the US, including D.C.

  • Abortion rate by state of occurrence: (no. abortions per 1,000 women aged 15-44) by state of occurrence in the US, including D.C.

  • Women without providers: percent of women aged 15-44 living in a US county without a clinic

  • Women traveling for care: percent of US residents obtaining abortions who traveled out of state for care

  • State Public Expenditures: Reported public expenditures for abortions (in 000s of dollars), state, 2015

  • Uninsured Women: percent of women aged 15-44 who are uninsured (as oppsed to having Medicare or Private Insurance), 2017

  • Women Without Providers: percent of women aged 15-44 living in a county without an abortion provider

  • Counties Without Providers: percent of counties without a known abortion provider

  • Unwanted Births: percent of pregnancies wanted later or unwanted ending in birth, 2017

  • Unwanted Pregnancies Ending in Abortion: percent of pregnancies wanted later or unwanted ending in abortion, 2017

Regression Details

Abortion rate by state of residence versus maximum female education of high school


Call:
lm(formula = highest_edu_USE_25_f ~ abortion_rate_residence + 
    below_median_income, data = master_df)

Residuals:
    Min      1Q  Median      3Q     Max 
-0.4534 -0.1337 -0.0720  0.1850  0.4610 

Coefficients:
                        Estimate Std. Error t value
(Intercept)             38.16273    6.01191   6.348
abortion_rate_residence  0.76101    0.06763  11.253
below_median_income     -0.08111    0.34690  -0.234
                        Pr(>|t|)    
(Intercept)             0.000716 ***
abortion_rate_residence 2.94e-05 ***
below_median_income     0.822908    
---
Signif. codes:  
0 '***' 0.001 '**' 0.01 '*' 0.05 '.' 0.1 ' ' 1

Residual standard error: 0.3512 on 6 degrees of freedom
  (22 observations deleted due to missingness)
Multiple R-squared:  0.9571,    Adjusted R-squared:  0.9429 
F-statistic:    67 on 2 and 6 DF,  p-value: 7.871e-05

Abortion rate by state of residence versus maximum male education of high school


Call:
lm(formula = highest_edu_USE_25_m ~ abortion_rate_residence + 
    below_median_income, data = master_df)

Residuals:
     Min       1Q   Median       3Q      Max 
-0.44033 -0.22854  0.00541  0.10816  0.57758 

Coefficients:
                        Estimate Std. Error t value
(Intercept)             47.68425    6.29077   7.580
abortion_rate_residence  0.37557    0.07076   5.307
below_median_income     -0.30404    0.36299  -0.838
                        Pr(>|t|)    
(Intercept)             0.000274 ***
abortion_rate_residence 0.001817 ** 
below_median_income     0.434355    
---
Signif. codes:  
0 '***' 0.001 '**' 0.01 '*' 0.05 '.' 0.1 ' ' 1

Residual standard error: 0.3675 on 6 degrees of freedom
  (22 observations deleted due to missingness)
Multiple R-squared:  0.8258,    Adjusted R-squared:  0.7678 
F-statistic: 14.22 on 2 and 6 DF,  p-value: 0.005284

Abortion rate by state of residence versus maximum female education of bachelor’s degree


Call:
lm(formula = highest_edu_BA_25_f ~ abortion_rate_residence + 
    below_median_income, data = master_df)

Residuals:
    Min      1Q  Median      3Q     Max 
-5.4931 -3.0540 -0.9389  2.9896  8.3662 

Coefficients:
                        Estimate Std. Error t value
(Intercept)              -78.761     90.202  -0.873
abortion_rate_residence    3.968      1.015   3.911
below_median_income        3.084      5.205   0.592
                        Pr(>|t|)   
(Intercept)              0.41615   
abortion_rate_residence  0.00788 **
below_median_income      0.57516   
---
Signif. codes:  
0 '***' 0.001 '**' 0.01 '*' 0.05 '.' 0.1 ' ' 1

Residual standard error: 5.269 on 6 degrees of freedom
  (22 observations deleted due to missingness)
Multiple R-squared:  0.7499,    Adjusted R-squared:  0.6665 
F-statistic: 8.993 on 2 and 6 DF,  p-value: 0.01565

Abortion rate by state of residence versus maximum male education of bachelor’s degree


Call:
lm(formula = highest_edu_BA_25_m ~ abortion_rate_residence + 
    below_median_income, data = master_df)

Residuals:
    Min      1Q  Median      3Q     Max 
-5.0157 -2.6926 -0.8728  2.3649  7.7683 

Coefficients:
                        Estimate Std. Error t value
(Intercept)             -76.1531    79.8183  -0.954
abortion_rate_residence   3.9951     0.8978   4.450
below_median_income       2.8839     4.6057   0.626
                        Pr(>|t|)   
(Intercept)              0.37688   
abortion_rate_residence  0.00433 **
below_median_income      0.55427   
---
Signif. codes:  
0 '***' 0.001 '**' 0.01 '*' 0.05 '.' 0.1 ' ' 1

Residual standard error: 4.663 on 6 degrees of freedom
  (22 observations deleted due to missingness)
Multiple R-squared:  0.7938,    Adjusted R-squared:  0.7251 
F-statistic: 11.55 on 2 and 6 DF,  p-value: 0.008767

Percent of women traveling out of state for abortion care versus number of abortion bans in a state


Call:
lm(formula = BanSum ~ Women_Traveling, data = ab_bans_2018_travel)

Residuals:
    Min      1Q  Median      3Q     Max 
-10.494  -3.229  -0.029   3.882  10.126 

Coefficients:
                Estimate Std. Error t value Pr(>|t|)    
(Intercept)     10.17195    1.06204   9.578 1.58e-12 ***
Women_Traveling  0.04600    0.03452   1.332    0.189    
---
Signif. codes:  
0 '***' 0.001 '**' 0.01 '*' 0.05 '.' 0.1 ' ' 1

Residual standard error: 5.629 on 46 degrees of freedom
  (1 observation deleted due to missingness)
Multiple R-squared:  0.03716,   Adjusted R-squared:  0.01623 
F-statistic: 1.775 on 1 and 46 DF,  p-value: 0.1893

State’s political leanings versus number of abortion bans in a state


Call:
lm(formula = BanSum ~ Party, data = ab_bans_2018_travel)

Residuals:
    Min      1Q  Median      3Q     Max 
-9.5385 -2.7727 -0.7727  3.2273 10.4615 

Coefficients:
            Estimate Std. Error t value Pr(>|t|)    
(Intercept)  14.7727     0.9607  15.377  < 2e-16 ***
Party1       -8.8442     1.5405  -5.741 7.07e-07 ***
Party2       -5.2343     1.5763  -3.321  0.00177 ** 
---
Signif. codes:  
0 '***' 0.001 '**' 0.01 '*' 0.05 '.' 0.1 ' ' 1

Residual standard error: 4.506 on 46 degrees of freedom
Multiple R-squared:  0.4284,    Adjusted R-squared:  0.4035 
F-statistic: 17.24 on 2 and 46 DF,  p-value: 2.591e-06

Access to providers: women without providers vs counties without providers


Call:
lm(formula = County_WO_Provider ~ Women_WO_Provider + below_median_income, 
    data = master_df)

Residuals:
       1        5        9       13       18       21 
-1.02011  0.74745 -0.03848 -0.13326 -0.53069 -0.37443 
      24       27 
 0.87938  0.47014 

Coefficients:
                    Estimate Std. Error t value Pr(>|t|)   
(Intercept)          50.4976    17.3849   2.905  0.03361 * 
Women_WO_Provider     0.9047     0.1759   5.142  0.00364 **
below_median_income  -0.7383     0.6844  -1.079  0.32999   
---
Signif. codes:  
0 '***' 0.001 '**' 0.01 '*' 0.05 '.' 0.1 ' ' 1

Residual standard error: 0.7791 on 5 degrees of freedom
  (23 observations deleted due to missingness)
Multiple R-squared:  0.9058,    Adjusted R-squared:  0.8681 
F-statistic: 24.03 on 2 and 5 DF,  p-value: 0.002727

Percent of unwanted pregnancies ending in abortion versus percent of women traveling out of state for care


Call:
lm(formula = Women_Traveling_2017 ~ Unwanted_End_Abortion_2017, 
    data = master_df_2_states)

Residuals:
    Min      1Q  Median      3Q     Max 
-21.584 -10.608  -4.895   5.836  58.162 

Coefficients:
                           Estimate Std. Error t value
(Intercept)                 40.9930     7.6248   5.376
Unwanted_End_Abortion_2017  -0.7459     0.2180  -3.422
                           Pr(>|t|)    
(Intercept)                2.21e-06 ***
Unwanted_End_Abortion_2017  0.00128 ** 
---
Signif. codes:  
0 '***' 0.001 '**' 0.01 '*' 0.05 '.' 0.1 ' ' 1

Residual standard error: 16.79 on 48 degrees of freedom
  (1 observation deleted due to missingness)
Multiple R-squared:  0.1961,    Adjusted R-squared:  0.1793 
F-statistic: 11.71 on 1 and 48 DF,  p-value: 0.001281

Percent of unwanted pregnancies ending in birth versus percent of women traveling out of state for care


Call:
lm(formula = Women_Traveling_2017 ~ Unwanted_Ending_Birth_2017, 
    data = master_df_2_states)

Residuals:
    Min      1Q  Median      3Q     Max 
-21.174 -10.886  -5.037   5.541  58.614 

Coefficients:
                           Estimate Std. Error t value
(Intercept)                -25.4673    12.8889  -1.976
Unwanted_Ending_Birth_2017   0.7880     0.2395   3.290
                           Pr(>|t|)   
(Intercept)                 0.05393 . 
Unwanted_Ending_Birth_2017  0.00188 **
---
Signif. codes:  
0 '***' 0.001 '**' 0.01 '*' 0.05 '.' 0.1 ' ' 1

Residual standard error: 16.91 on 48 degrees of freedom
  (1 observation deleted due to missingness)
Multiple R-squared:  0.184, Adjusted R-squared:  0.167 
F-statistic: 10.82 on 1 and 48 DF,  p-value: 0.001882

State public expenditure on abortions versus abortion rate by state of residence


Call:
lm(formula = Ab_Rate_Res_2016 ~ State_Pub_Exp_2015, data = master_df_2_states)

Residuals:
    Min      1Q  Median      3Q     Max 
-7.9784 -2.9374 -0.8617  3.1626 14.4981 

Coefficients:
                    Estimate Std. Error t value Pr(>|t|)
(Intercept)        1.131e+01  7.723e-01  14.648   <2e-16
State_Pub_Exp_2015 4.282e-04  1.327e-04   3.227   0.0025
                      
(Intercept)        ***
State_Pub_Exp_2015 ** 
---
Signif. codes:  
0 '***' 0.001 '**' 0.01 '*' 0.05 '.' 0.1 ' ' 1

Residual standard error: 4.79 on 40 degrees of freedom
  (9 observations deleted due to missingness)
Multiple R-squared:  0.2065,    Adjusted R-squared:  0.1867 
F-statistic: 10.41 on 1 and 40 DF,  p-value: 0.002501

Percent of uninsured women versus abortion rate by state of residence


Call:
lm(formula = Ab_Rate_Res_2017 ~ Women_Uninsured_2017, data = master_df_2_states)

Residuals:
   Min     1Q Median     3Q    Max 
-6.697 -2.993 -1.389  2.103 16.803 

Coefficients:
                     Estimate Std. Error t value Pr(>|t|)
(Intercept)           13.9605     1.8871   7.398 1.61e-09
Women_Uninsured_2017  -0.2513     0.1630  -1.541     0.13
                        
(Intercept)          ***
Women_Uninsured_2017    
---
Signif. codes:  
0 '***' 0.001 '**' 0.01 '*' 0.05 '.' 0.1 ' ' 1

Residual standard error: 5.231 on 49 degrees of freedom
Multiple R-squared:  0.04623,   Adjusted R-squared:  0.02676 
F-statistic: 2.375 on 1 and 49 DF,  p-value: 0.1297