| Abstract: | The 1970 abortion law in New York State made abortion on request legal. A sudden increase in demand for abortions was anticipated. In order to plan for the development of free-standing abortion clinics in New York City to meet this anticipated demand, the nature of their demand function was calculated. The clients of these free-standing clinics were mainly white, high-income women from outside New York City. Surprisingly enough, given the urgency of need situation of many of the prospective clients, the demand was found to be highly elastic. In other words, higher prices caused a lowering of demand for the abortion services. It is assumed that alternative services were used instead. |
