PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Ananat, Elizabeth Oltmans
AU  - Gruber, Jonathan
AU  - Levine, Phillip
TI  - Abortion Legalization and Life-Cycle Fertility
AID  - 10.3368/jhr.XLII.2.375
DP  - 2007 Mar 31
TA  - Journal of Human Resources
PG  - 375--397
VI  - XLII
IP  - 2
4099  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/XLII/2/375.short
4100  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/XLII/2/375.full
SO  - J Hum Resour2007 Mar 31; XLII
AB  - The early-1970s abortion legalization led to a significant drop in fertility. We investigate whether this decline represented a delay in births or a permanent reduction in fertility. We combine Census and Vital Statistics data to compare the lifetime fertility of women born in early-legalizing states, whose peak childbearing years occurred in the early 1970s, to that of women from other states and cohorts. We find that much of the reduction was permanent, in that women did not compensate by having more children later, and that it largely reflects an increased share of women remaining childless throughout their fertile years.