RESTRICTIVE ABORTION POLICIES ARE ASSOCIATED WITH INDIVIDUAL RISK OF DIVORCE

Objectives

Multiple studies have documented the benefits of abortion access to women across multiple dimensions. Much less research, however, has examined the broader implications of abortion access to family-level processes. We hypothesize that reproductive autonomy is foundational for family stability and test whether there is an association between abortion-restrictive environments and the risk of divorce.

Methods

Data come from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, a prospective cohort data set with five waves of data collection over more than 20 years (n=5,184). The data include multiple indicators of abortion policy and access (eg, public funding available, informed consent procedures, parental consent, and presence of a family planning provider in the county) and relationship histories, including whether the respondent has had a divorce. We used logistic regression analyses and adjusted for sociodemographic characteristics associated with divorce risk (eg, age, education, income, race/ethnicity, number of children in household) and multiple county- and state-level sociodemographic indicators.

Results

Respondents who lived in states and counties with more abortion restrictions had an increased risk of being divorced (OR=1.12, 95% CI=1.05, 1.20) in the fully adjusted models. We did not find differences by gender in the relationship between abortion policy and divorce risk.

Conclusions

Abortion-restrictive environments are associated with an increased risk of divorce.