Does legalizing abortion decrease fertility? Evidence from Portugal

Abstract

Portugal legalized voluntary abortion in 2007. Administrative individual-level data from birth registries in Spain and Portugal are used to study the impact of this legalization on fertility and infants’ health outcomes at the municipality level. Using Spain as the control group, both empirical strategies analyze teenagers (16-19) and women aged between 25 and 34. The diference-in-diference indicates a 3.7% decrease in fertility when comparing municipalities within the Nuts III regions. The diference-in-diference combined with propensity score matching determined a 6.7 % decrease. Both negative results were teenager driven. Regarding infant health outcomes, we found a negative impact of 3,8% on premature births, and no impact on low birth weight.