The effects of limiting access to abortion on domestic violence

Abstract

This paper estimates the effect of access to abortion on the number of reported domestic violence victims using abortion clinic closures in the state of Texas that resulted from a statewide policy change. Results suggest that a decrease in access to abortion services causes a decrease in the number of reported intimate partner victims, though the evidence is weak. When analyzing the effects by relationship type, the results appear to be driven by victims with no legal ties to their offender, such as dating partners. The results indicate that a law enforcement agency that no longer has an abortion clinic within 100 miles reports 13.8% fewer dating partner victims. Because domestic violence crimes are vastly underreported and the data I use are exposed to this issue, the results could be due to a change in the frequency of the crime or a change in the decision to report the crime. This is the first paper to estimate this causal relationship, contributing to the literature by analyzing a policy that could have unintended impacts on victims of domestic violence.