Shefali Luthra

Reproductive Health Reporter

Published

Republish this story

Republish this story

When fewer people can get abortions, property crime rates go up, a new working paper out Monday suggests.

The analysis, published in the National Bureau of Economic Research, underscores the connection between abortion access and economic stability: more people becoming pregnant and being forced into poverty led to higher property crimes. It tracks the impact of a Texas abortion law enacted in 2013, which imposed a host of new regulations on abortion providers. Those restrictions resulted in the vast majority of the state’s clinics closing; as a result of the law, the distance patients had to travel for an abortion more than doubled, from an average of 21 miles to 53.

Most people who seek

See Full Page