Biased abortion counseling laws and abortion demand

Since the U.S. Supreme Court's 1992 Casey decision many states have enacted biased abortion counseling laws. These laws mandate that abortion providers furnish to women with unwanted pregnancies state-approved medical information about possible side effects from having an abortion that are false. The most egregious falsehoods are that abortion is linked to mental health problems (e.g., suicide, postabortion traumatic stress syndrome, and depression), breast cancer, infertility and fetal pain. This paper investigates whether these four biased abortion falsehoods have an impact on the demand for abortions in the year 2000. The empirical results find that these four biased abortion falsehoods have no significant impact on the abortion demand of pregnant women of childbearing age (15–44 years), adult pregnant women (18–44 years) or pregnant teen minors (15–17 years). The findings remain robust even after controlling for regional differences in antiabortion attitudes.     

Utilization of oral contraception: The impact of direct and indirect restrictions on access to abortion

Utilizing variation across U.S. state abortion restrictions on minors and different levels of provider availability, we measure whether women under the age of 25 are less careful in using contraception if abortions are less costly, in terms of both financial and opportunity cost. The effects of abortion restrictions for minors are largest and the most significant for women aged 18 and younger, and the effect of these restrictions decrease in magnitude and significance gradually as women age. As the percent of the state's women without a provider increases, abortions are more difficult to obtain, and women are more likely to use the pill. When a larger percentage of women have a provider, abortions are more easily obtained, and there is a negative effect on pill usage. These results indicate that young women are forward thinking when making their contraceptive decisions, relative to the direct and indirect restrictions on abortion access.     

Structural pressures, social policy and poverty

The purpose of this article is twofold. The first aim is to examine 15 OECD countries from the point of view of the so-called third-generation studies, analysing if the development of poverty and income transfers has been uniform in countries classified under the same welfare state models. This has been done to test how appropriate it is to use welfare state models as an analytical tool in comparative welfare state research. The second aim is to examine the effect of different structural factors on poverty and income transfers. Obtained results indicate that two demographic variables studied behave somewhat differently. The share of older people in the population is – not very surprisingly – connected to an increase in income transfers. In the case of younger population groups, the results are the opposite. The results show that the greater the proportion of older people in the population, the lower the poverty rates. Social policy has in many countries consisted primarily of pension policy, and investments in the elderly population are now beginning to bear fruit. Good pension schemes diminish the immediate poverty risk of older people. As a consequence of their increased well-being, the overall poverty rate will fall. In addition to demographic factors, the results indicate that the unemployment rate is connected, on the one hand, to growth in income transfers and, on the other hand, also to increases in poverty. However, unemployment's effect on poverty is not straightforward. The direct effect is indeed an increase in poverty but, if income transfers are taken into account, the indirect effect is a decrease in poverty, since unemployment increases income transfers (unemployment benefits), which on their side alleviate poverty.     

The perceived importance of family‐friendly policies to childbirth decision among Hong Kong women

Wong C‐K, Tang K‐L, Ye S. The perceived importance of family‐friendly policies to childbirth decision among Hong Kong women Int J Soc Welfare 2011: 20: 381–392 © 2010 The Author(s), Journal compilation © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and the International Journal of Social Welfare. Declining fertility is a problem in many advanced industrialised countries, calling for government action. While positive findings have been established between family policies and fertility levels in European countries, empirical studies on family‐friendly policies and their impact on fertility levels have been few and far between in East Asia. Based on a random telephone survey of 645 young women, this study examined the perceived importance of family‐friendly policies to childbirth among Hong Kong women of childbearing age. Also investigated was whether public policies could have an impact on the decision to have a child. The findings give support to both the risk‐society theory and the rationality theory; family‐friendly policies such as tax credits, extended childcare and flexitime enhance the risk management capacity of women and reduce the cost of child rearing. The study also found that demographic factors such as age, education, and having children or not are significant to the intent to bear children.     

Fetal Positions: Unraveling the Influence of Religion on Premarital Pregnancy Resolution*

Objective. This study illustrates the ways religiosity and denominational affiliation influence the probability that a young woman will have an abortion. Methods. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), measures of sexual behavior, out‐of‐wedlock pregnancy, and out‐of‐wedlock pregnancy resolution are regressed on religiosity and denominational affiliation. Results. Religiosity indirectly reduces the likelihood that a woman will have an abortion by reducing the probability that she will have an out‐of‐wedlock pregnancy. Among women who conceive out of wedlock, religiosity increases the likelihood of marriage before birth, and thereby reduces the probability of abortion. However, among women who conceive out of wedlock and do not marry before birth, religiosity is unrelated to the probability of having an abortion. Conclusions. Religiosity affects the probability that a woman will obtain an abortion more through its influence on choices about sex and marriage, and less through its influence on attitudes about abortion.     

The Price Effects of Family Caps on Fertility Decisions of Poor Women

ABSTRACT

Family Caps have been a popular welfare reform policy designed to discourage women on welfare from bearing additional children. It has been thought that the principal mechanism through which a Cap achieves its objective of lower birth rates is the financial pressure placed on women by the denial of cash benefits. Our study uses instrumental variables Probit modeling to directly measure the contribution that price makes to Cap impact on births. We reexamine data from the New Jersey Family Development Program (n = 8,393) experiment and find that only a very small percentage (about 2.5%) of the overall Family Cap effect reported in earlier studies can be attributed to price. Moreover, the price effect holds only for short-term Black welfare recipients. We speculate that much of the unexplained Family Cap treatment effect stems from a message of social pressure and disapproval toward welfare receipt and childbearing on welfare. We offer a possible direction for future research which would directly measure the social disapproval component.     

Demographic Characteristics and Contraceptive Practices of Abortion Patients at a New Zealand Medical Centre

A highly controversial Centre performing early pregnancy terminations opened in Auckland in May 1974, and remained the only facility specialising in abortion in New Zealand. It closed following the enactment of the Crimes Amendment Act in December 1977. Analysis of social characteristics of attenders shows that this Centre served a younger population than those having abortions in public hospitals. Fewer than 47% of those obtaining abortions had previously used a contraceptive technique, and of those who did the majority used methods with relatively high failure rates. There was a relationship between educational attainment, age, and contraceptive usage.     

Development and evaluation of the abortion attributes questionnaire

This paper describes the development and evaluation of the Abortion Attributes Questionnaire (AAQ), an instrument designed to assess the perceived importance of specific characteristics of abortion methods. Women receiving medical abortions ( n = 186) and women who chose surgical procedures ( n = 118) completed the AAQ. Participants were asked to rate how important each of 21 characteristics would be "when choosing between surgical and medical abortion." Factor analyses revealed that the AAQ consists of four factors and, as subscales, the factors have good internal reliability. The validity of the AAQ was established through discriminant function analysis and results indicated that three of the four factors predicted choice. Taken together, these findings provide empirical support for the constructs measured by the AAQ .     

Women's responses to abortion: implications for post-abortion support groups

Family planning and abortion clinics are starting to recognize the importance of providing postabortion counseling as part of the overall follow-up procedure. The literature on the psychosocial consequences of abortion reveals that abortion is a positive, growth-producing experience for the majority of women. However, abortion can be a stressful and emotionally difficult experience for other women as a result of ambivalence over the pregnancy or abortion, lack of positive support from significant others, feelings of guilt and loss, and inadequate coping skills. This paper reports a model for postabortion support groups aimed at clarifying feelings, reducing alienation and isolation, facilitating appropriate mourning, increasing self-esteem, and bringing appropriate closure to the abortion experience. Since 1984, such groups have been offered by the University of Washington Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) Abortion Birth Control Referral Service in Seattle, Washington. The groups, which meet weekly for 6 sessions and include 2-8 women, use discussions, role play, art therapy techniques, and psychodrama to alleviate abortion-related stress and effect changes in problematic ideas and feelings. Plans for the group developed out of the leaders' observation that women who returned to the Service for a second abortion often had not dealt with feelings or issues from the first procedure. Nonjudgmental acceptance of abortion as an individual choice has empowered many group participants to raise their consciousness about women's social status and take a more active role in decision making about their reproductive life.     

Legalized Abortion and the Homicide of Young Children: An Empirical Investigation

Recent research has drawn a link, sometimes a causal link, between the legalization of abortion in the late 1960s and early 1970s and the precipitous decline in crime in the 1990s. Abortion is posited to have reduced the number of potential victims and potential perpetrators, and the potential effect is examined when these individuals would be reaching their high-crime years. We examined a more proximal potential association between legalized abortion and homicide, specifically, the homicide of young children. Assuming that abortions occurred when the family had insufficient resources for the birth, one could hypothesize that children would have been at higher risk of homicide if born into these circumstances. We examined 1960-1998 U.S. mortality data for children under 5 years of age using an interrupted time series design. The legalization of abortion was not associated with a sudden change in child homicide trends. It was, however, associated with a steady decrease in the homicides of toddlers (i.e., 1- to 4-year-olds) in subsequent years. Although in the predicted direction, the decrease in homicides of children under 1 year of age was not statistically significant. Competing explanations that could be examined in the data (e.g., changes in mortality classification) do not account for the findings.     

Money and Swedish inflation

Analysing the role of money for Swedish inflation, we apply a single equation “P-Star” model and a structural VECM for the period of the late 1980s to the beginning of 2005. Against the background of theoretical and empirical considerations, we find that money – when measured by the “price gap” or, alternatively, the “money overhang” – had a statistically significant impact on future price movements. The results suggest that money might have to play a more prominent role in monetary policy making in Sweden compared with the status quo.     

Social Exclusion and Double Jeopardy: The Management of Lone Mothers in the Market–State Social Field

The popular version of social exclusion has given rise to various forms of welfare-to-work initiatives in most developed capitalist nations. Social inclusion, therefore, is commonly assumed to be achieved through paid work. The delivery of social welfare through employment activation programmes is consequential, as it necessitates an unusual cooperation between the welfare state and the labour market. With a focus on Ontario Works, a relatively mature example of Canada's residualized social welfare services, this article is an empirical analysis of the social space in which the state and the market merge – by design – and the resulting processes and outcomes of social exclusion that operate for women who parent alone. I begin with a brief review of the most popular concept of social exclusion, and the pre-eminent place of paid work in related social policy responses, followed by a consideration of the ideological context producing and reinforced by work-first programmes. Our attention is turned to a reconfigured notion of social exclusion as process and outcome, spontaneously set in motion and self-perpetuating in the fused market–state social field. Through a case study of lone mother experiences of Ontario Works, the specific ideological practices through which welfare-to-work strategies operate to keep women in their place are described. I argue that the analysis of the market-state as a unified social field – ordered according to the paired ideologies of market neo-liberalism and conservative 'family values'– is necessary for conceiving policy responses that are effective in interrupting the dynamic process–outcome iterations of social exclusion.     

Community Attitudes Towards Random Breath Testing in New South Wales

This report represents the results of two surveys, conducted in New South Wales by McNair Anderson in March 1983 and March 1984, to evaluate the impact of random breath testing on the community's attitude towards its operation. The results of these surveys (conducted by McNair Anderson) and indicate: (1) increasing acceptance of random breath testing, especially among women; (2) increased approval of the .05 level, especially among women; (3) quite a high exposure rate, both direct and indirect, to random breath testing, and (4) reported changes in drink-drive behaviour among drinking licensed drivers, including limiting drinking when driving, drinking at home more often and getting someone else to drive. Reasons for the differences between men and women in their attitudes to random breath testing are explored.     

Sex, Age, and the Implementation of the Motor Voter Act: The 1996 Presidential Election

Objective . Among the existing studies of political participation, few discuss differences between men and women. Of those published, most have focused upon substantive policy preferences, perhaps noting women's newly dominant electoral presence but not probing its characteristics or limits. In this analysis we build on the work of Schlozman, Burns, and Verba (1994) by examining the compound effects of closing dates, state National Voter Registration Act implementation delay, and age upon women and men. Methods . Using the 1996 Current Population Survey Voter Supplement we compare the impact of legal obstacles among different age groups of men and women in the 1996 presidential election. Results . We find that legal restrictions do have a different impact on men and women, especially the youngest and oldest members of the latter group. Conclusions . The most significant implication of our work is that policy efforts aimed at further reducing legal barriers to political participation may facilitate women's growing electoral dominance.     

Relationship Characteristics and the Relationship Context of Nonmarital First Births Among Young Adult Women

OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this study were to examine whether and how characteristics of the relationship dyad are linked to nonmarital childbearing among young adult women, additionally distinguishing between cohabiting and nonunion births. METHODS: We used the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1997 Cohort and discrete-time event history methods to examine these objectives. RESULTS: Our analyses found that similarities and differences between women and their most recent sexual partner in educational attainment, disengagement from work or school, race/ethnicity, and age were linked to the risk and context of nonmarital childbearing. For example, partner disengagement (from school and work) was associated with increased odds of a nonmarital birth regardless of whether the woman herself was disengaged. Additionally, having a partner of a different race/ethnicity was associated with nonmarital childbearing for whites, but not for blacks and Hispanics. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that relationship characteristics are an important dimension of the lives of young adults that influence their odds of having a birth outside of marriage.     

"The law has no feeling for poor folks like us!" Everyday responses to legal compulsion in England's working-class communities, 1871-1904

During the late Victorian period, the role of the state increased dramatically in England's working-class urban communities. New laws on labor, health, and education, enforced by a growing bureaucracy of elected and appointed officials, extended the reach of public authority into daily life on an unprecedented scale. Everyday negotiations between these officials and working-class men and women, I argue, were key moments for determining the practical impact of new social welfare policies. This was particularly true in the contestation over children's compulsory school attendance, as I demonstrate through a close examination of the daily encounters between parents and education officials. Despite the growing size and authority of the Victorian state, working-class parents effectively mitigated the impact of the compulsory education laws on their families. They were able to do so because the categories that governed the level of enforcement—age, household economic status, health, and labor—were themselves determined through daily dialogues between parents and education officials. Parents' familiarity with the law and with the dynamics of the public education bureaucracy were key factors in these negotiations, as were internal fractures within the Victorian state itself. Working-class parents, and mothers in particular, also countered officials' moral policy justifications with their own discourse of right and wrong, which focused on the legitimacy of parental authority, an insistence on just treatment, and the elevation of household needs over the laws' requirements.     

Adolescent sexuality and premature parenthood: role of the Black church in prevention

The issues of sexuality and premature parenthood with the background of the Black experience in the United States are discussed. According to a 1986 study, 40% of US girls get pregnant at least once before the age of 20. In 1981, 45% of teenage pregnancies were terminated, and in 1982, 46% of girls 14-19 years old had had sexual intercourse. The gap between Black and White adolescent women regarding sexual intercourse has essentially disappeared, indicating that the underlying causes of teenage pregnancy are social not racial. The costs of adolescent childbearing are huge: in 1985 the public cost was at least 16.65 million dollars. In response to this crisis, many states have been searching for effective solutions enlisting clinics, schools, and social service agencies. The Black church has been a central institution within the Black community, in the forefront of many social changes with the ability to mobilize congregations and the community. Therefore, the cooperation of social service agencies, community groups, and the religious community could be fruitful in preventing adolescent pregnancies and childbearing. Such a venture would first require understanding the processes of adolescent development, self-esteem, socialization, relationship building, gender differences in physical and psychological changes, and moral development. A 1986 Gallup poll showed that 74% of 13-15 year old youth said that religion was one of the most important influences in their lives, indicating that they would be perceptive to moral reasoning. However, the fear of genocide was significant among the Black population (39%) when birth control and family planning programs were mentioned. This had to do with their brutal treatment in the past and coercive sterilization proposals to reduce welfare rolls. To overcome such fears and still prevent adolescent pregnancy, the Black church should organize workshops for parents and adolescents about sexual development, birth control, and the consequences of sexual activity with a view to postponing sexual activity and parenthood.     

The Legalization of Abortion and Subsequent Youth Homicide: A Time Series Analysis

In this article, we examine the association between the legalization of abortion with the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision and youth homicide in the 1980s and 1990s. An interrupted time series design was used to examine the deaths of all U.S. 15- to 24-year-olds that were classified as homicides according to the International Classification of Diseases (codes E960-969) from 1970 to 1998. The legalization of abortion is associated over a decade later with a gradual reduction in the homicides of White and non-White young men. The effect on the homicides of young women is minimal. We conclude that the 1990s decline in the homicide of young men is statistically associated with the legalization of abortion. Findings are not consistent with several alternative explanations, such as changes in the crack cocaine drug market. It is almost inconceivable that in the United States of today, policies affecting the choice to have children would be justified as a means to control crime. Yet, if the legalization of abortion had this unintended effect, the full range of policy implications needs to be discussed.     

Child maltreatment,maladaptive cognitive schemas,and perceptions of social support among young women care leavers

The purpose of the study was to evaluate the associations between child maltreatment, cognitive schemas of disconnection/rejection reported in emerging adulthood, and social support perceived in emerging adulthood among young women who have exited placements in residential care. The sample is derived from a longitudinal study conducted with 132 young women who had been placed in residential care during adolescence in Montreal (Canada) in 2008–2009. The present study relied solely on the last measurement wave of this study, which was conducted approximately 5 years (2012–2014) after Wave 1. At this time, participants were out of residential care (mean age = 19.4 years). Results showed that the more severe the retrospective accounts of child maltreatment were, the less social support young women perceived as available to them in emerging adulthood. When the tendency to endorse disconnection/rejection schemas is considered, the direct connection between maltreatment and perceived social support disappears, and we instead see an indirect relationship through these schemas. Findings suggest that programs and services must go beyond identifying social‐support networks for young women care leavers. Considerable effort should be devoted to helping these young women develop the skills they need to build and maintain trusting relationships with significant people around them.     

How does economic globalisation affect the welfare state? Focusing on the mediating effect of welfare regimes

In recent years the impact of globalisation on the welfare state has become a major issue in comparative policy studies. Some empirical studies demonstrate a negative relationship between globalisation and the welfare state, while others show adverse findings or a non-significant relationship. The impact of globalisation, however, can be neither uniform nor unidirectional because of the differences in the political economies of individual welfare states. Welfare regimes reflect qualitative differences in arrangements of welfare institutions and the associated enduring configuration of the welfare nexus, suggesting that welfare regimes may influence the impact of globalisation on the welfare state. We scrutinise the relationship between globalisation and the welfare state by sampling 18 affluent countries from 1980 to 2001 and concentrating on the mediating effect of three welfare regime types. Our study provides a comprehensive examination of the relationship between globalisation and the welfare state using a state-of-the-art analytical technique – the mixed-effect model. Findings suggest that welfare regimes respond differently to the impact of globalisation and therefore mediate the relationship between globalisation and the welfare state. Globalisation negatively affects the welfare state in a social democratic regime, while it marginally affects the welfare state in liberal and conservative regimes.