DISCUSSION PAPER SERIES

IZA DP No. 11890

Abortion Laws and Women’s Health

Damian Clarke
Hanna Mühlrad

OCTOBER 2018
DISCUSSION PAPER SERIES

IZA DP No. 11890

Abortion Laws and Women’s Health

Damian Clarke
Universidad de Santiago de Chile and IZA
Hanna Mühlrad
Lund University

OCTOBER 2018

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IZA DP No. 11890 OCTOBER 2018

ABSTRACT
Abortion Laws and Women’s Health*
We examine the impact of progressive and regressive abortion legislation on women’s
health and survival in Mexico. Following a 2007 reform in the Federal District of Mexico
which decriminalised and subsidised early-term elective abortion, multiple other Mexican
states increased sanctions on illegal abortion. We observe that the original progressive
policy resulted in a sharp decline in maternal morbidity, particularly maternal morbidity due
to haemorrhage early in pregnancy. We observe small or null impacts on women’s health
from increasing sanctions on illegal abortion. We find some evidence to suggest that these
impacts were also observed when considering maternal mortality, though effects are less
precisely estimated.

JEL Classification: I18, J13, K38, H75

Keywords: abortion, maternal morbidity, maternal mortality,
political economy, legislative reform

Corresponding author:
Damian Clarke
Universidad de Santiago de Chile
Av. Libertador Bernardo O’Higgins 3363
Estación Central
Santiago de Chile
Chile
E-mail: damian.clarke@usach.cl

* We thank Blair G. Darney, Hans Grönqvist, Randi Hjalmarsson, Lakshmi Iyer, Elin Larsson Andreea Mitrut, Carol
Propper and seminar audiences at IPAS Mexico, The LACEA Health Economics Network, University of Gothenburg,
SOFI Stockholm University, Karolinska Institute and CSAE Oxford. We thank Raffaela Schiavon for detailed discussions
regarding the practical implementation of Mexico D.F.’s ILE reform. We are also grateful to Natalia Volkow at INEGI
for providing access to disaggregated hospitalisation data, Alejandro del Valle for sharing data, and Cristhian Molina
for excellent research assistance. Clarke acknowledges the generous support of FONDECYT grant number 11160200
from the Government of Chile.
1 Introduction

Appeals to women’s health are frequently made when debating the merits of abortion legislation. These

calls are made by both advocates of legal abortion, as well as those advocating for abortion to become, or

remain, illegal. Such appeals are commonly made by so-called “pro-life” and “pro-choice” organizations,

citing academic literature in support of their positions. The arguments backing up such claims are drawn

from a range of sources, which are often correlational or based on small or non-representative samples of

women.1

In this study we present the first population-level evidence of the impact of sub-national variation in

abortion laws on maternal morbidity, as well as maternal mortality, using the universe of administrative

health records from Mexico. We focus on a period in which considerable within-country reform of abortion

policy was undertaken, with both a sweeping legalisation in the Federal District of the country (Mexico

DF), and increasing sanctions on (illegal) abortion in other regions of the country. In this context, we are

able to determine to what extent change in abortion laws, absent other major contraceptive revolutions,

impact health indicators for the population of affected women.

In particular, we examine the effect of a sharply defined local abortion reform in the Mexico DF pro-

viding free access to legal and safe abortion services. This reform, occurring in April of 2007, resulted in

a legislative backlash in other regions of the country, with 18 states following the announcement of the

reform by modifying their own constitutions or penal codes to increase the sanctions attached to suspected

abortions. The original Mexico DF reform—the so called legal interruption of pregnancy (or ILE for its

name in Spanish)—was of considerable importance. During the pre-reform period of 2001-2007 a total

of 62 legal abortions (available in restrictive conditions) were performed in Mexico DF. In the 5 years

following the 2007 reform, more than 90,000 women accessed safe legal abortion. In this paper we com-

bine the state-level variation over time resulting from legislative changes in abortion law with high-quality

vital-statistics data recording over 30 million births, 18.4 thousand maternal deaths and 46 million inpatient

1 Theuse of such arguments even when based on weak evidence is not isolated to non-governmental organisations. Similar
arguments are also made by politicians. One such example is a fact sheet published on the US National Cancer Institute website
by the Bush administration positing an (unfounded) link between abortion and breast cancer (Special Investigations Division,
Committee of Government Reform, House of Representatives, 2003).
2
cases for causes related to maternal health.

This environment provides a unique opportunity to examine simultaneous expansions and contractions

of abortion policies.2 While much of the existing literature on the impact of abortion—and contraceptive

policies more generally—focuses on expansions in access, there are a number of papers which focus on

contractions in policies. These include historical restrictions in Romania (Pop-Eleches, 2010), the impact

of parental consent or notification laws targeted at adolescents in the U.S. (Bitler and Zavodny, 2001;

Joyce and Kaestner, 1996), and a recent hollowing out in the availability of providers due to state-specific

legislation in the U.S. (Lu and Slusky, 2016; Fischer et al., 2017; Cunningham et al., 2017). However, the

legalisation of abortion in Mexico DF and resulting spate of constitutional changes increasing the harshness

of sentencing of illegal abortion provides the opportunity to examine the impact of a contemporaneous

series of restrictive and permissive abortion policies in a single country and time.

We begin by bench-marking the reforms’ impacts on fertility. We find—in line with literature on the

fertility impacts of abortion reform in other settings documented in Table 1—that legalisation reduced birth

rates by approximately 5-6 percent. We generally observe little evidence to suggest that the posterior re-

gressive law changes had considerable impacts on fertility. In considering impacts of abortion laws on

maternal health, we implement difference-in-differences (DD), event study, and synthetic control proce-

dures based on state-level reforms. Across methodologies, we find clear evidence pointing to a reduction

in maternal morbidity following the introduction of legalised abortion. This is driven by a sharp reduction

in rates of haemorrhage early in pregnancy, which falls immediately by approximately 40%. We observe

little evidence to suggest consistently estimated statistically significant changes in morbidity following in-

creased sanctions on (illegal) abortion. In general we observe impacts on maternal mortality which agree

with those when examining maternal morbidity. However, estimates are considerably less precise, sug-

gesting that when examining only impacts of abortion law on maternal mortality, analyses fail to account

for the full weight of abortion reform on women’s health. We additionally document, using administrative

2 As we discuss at more length in sections 2.3-2.4 of this paper, the change due to the ILE reform was considerably larger
than subsequent legislative tightenings. In the case of the constitutional changes issued by states, in each case abortion was
already illegal, and any changes owe to an increased threat of prosecution or sanction. Using the universe of legal decisions in
the country, we do document evidence suggesting that these reforms increase the average length of sentences handed down to
women.
3
records from the judiciary, that Mexico’s regressive reforms did have a De Facto impact on legal sanctions,

with the length of sentences handed down to women following these reforms increasing substantially.

This study adds to the existing literature on abortion reform (described at more length in section 2 of

this paper) by providing evidence on the effect of abortion legalization absent simultaneous changes in

other major contraceptive laws and reforms.3 And to the best of our knowledge, this is the first study

to provide well-identified population-level evidence of the impact of abortion legalization on maternal

morbidity and mortality based on within-country variation in abortion availability. While an association

between abortion legalization and lower abortion-related complications has been documented in previous

studies, comprehensively capturing the impact of the passage of abortion law on abortion-related morbidity

is a considerable challenging, especially in clandestine settings, where under-reporting may occur (Singh

et al., 2010). Maternal mortality is considered the “tip of the iceberg”, where the mass consists of maternal

morbidity (Loudon, 1992). In many settings, analyses of the impact of abortion on population health

focuses only on maternal mortality due to a lack of universal health records measuring maternal morbidity.

This paper joins a handful of studies on Mexico’s ILE reform, spread across a range of fields including

law (Johnson, 2013), public health (Contreras et al., 2011; Schiavon et al., 2012a; Becker, 2013), medicine

(Madrazo, 2009), and demography (Gutierrez-Vazquez and Parrado, 2015).4 The present paper, however is

the first to harness the full power of vital statistics data, the first to collect and combine the ILE reform with

the regressive law changes following this reform, and the first to consider how morbidity and mortality, as

well as fertility and criminal sanctions handed to women, may be affected by abortion reform in Mexico.

All in all, the paper provides strong evidence that abortion legalization in an emerging economy leads to

rapid and discernible changes in political behavior, aggregate fertility rates, and (significant improvements

in) maternal health.

3 In Mexico, the country under study, contraception has been legal and freely provided by the government since a constitu-
tional declaration in 1974.
4 In examining the abortion reform and fertility outcomes, Gutierrez-Vazquez and Parrado (2015) use national vital statistics

to examine the effect on fertility across ages. Due to the use of a limited amount of data and limitations inherent in the empirical
design one cannot assign a causal interpretation to the results with confidence. More specifically, only three different years of
data are used (1990, 2000 and 2010). In a study by Koch et al. (2015), maternal mortality is found to increase in areas with more
liberal abortion laws. This paper however, has received strong criticism for highly misleading and inaccurate data selection
Darney et al. (2017).
4
 Table 1: Review of Estimates of Abortion Reform on Fertility

Authors Context Reform Outcome Estimate

Panel A: Progressive Law Changes
Angrist and Evans (1996) United States 1970 abortion reforms Probability of teen motherhood
−0.045 (0.012) for black women and
−0.012(0.04) for white women.a
Ananat et al. (2007) United States Roe v Wade Number of children per woman up to age −0.054 (0.012).b
39.
Ananat and Hungerman (2012) United States Abortion and the pill Birth rate for women in ages 14-20. −0.0476 (0.0135).c
Bailey (2009) United States Abortion and the pill Probability of first birth before age 21. Effect of abortion: −0.009 (0.026).
Effect of abortion and the pill: −0.013 (0.024).d
Gruber et al. (1999) United States Roe v Wade Birth rate for women 15-44. −0.059 (0.005).e
Guldi (2008) United States Abortion and the pill Birth rate for women in ages 15-21. −0.100 (0.054) for white women
−0.030 (0.048) for nonwhite women. f
Joyce and Kaestner (1996) United States Expansions in Medicaid Probability of abortion. −2 to −5% points (significant at least at 10%
income eligibility level) among unmarried non-black women aged
19-22 and 23-27.g
Joyce et al. (2013) United States (NY) Roe v. Wade Birth rate for women 15-44. −0.36 births per 1000 given a mean distance of
23 miles.h
Levine et al. (1999) United States Roe v Wade Birth rate women 15-44. −0.050(0.008). i
Mølland (2016) Norway abortion in Oslo Probability of teen motherhood (<20). −0.029(0.009). j
Myers (2017) United States abortion Probability of giving birth before age 19. −0.0284(0.0070). k

5
Pop-Eleches (2010) Romania abortion plus contracep- Probability of giving birth. −0.068(0.015) for women 20-24 with low
tion education.l
Valente (2014) Nepal Access to an abortion cen- Probability of giving birth conditional on Living within 28.6 km to an abortion center led
ter conception women aged 15-49. to −0.0737(0.0272). m
Our Estimate Mexico ILE reform Birth rates women 15-49 −0.054(0.015)

Panel B: Regressive Law Changes

Kane and Staiger (1996) United States Medicaid restriction and Number of births to mothers 15-19. White women, Medicaid: −0.0005(0.0002),
parental consent parental consent: −0.0012(0.0002). n
Cook et al. (1999) United States (NC) Abortion funding Log of birth count. 0.047(0.014) for black women and
0.015(0.010) for white women.o
Levine et al. (1996) United States Medicaid funding restric- Birth Rate women 15-44. −0.582(0.400). p
tions
Joyce et al. (2006) United States (TX) Texas Parental Notifica- Rate ratio of birth among minors 17.50- rate ratio, 1.04 (95 % CI, 1.00 to 1.08).q
tion Law 17.74 years of age.
Lahey (2014) United States Laws restricting abortion ln(child woman ratio) for women aged 15- 4 − 12% increase.r
in the nineteenth century 44.
Our Estimate Mexico Regressive law changes Birth rate women 15-49 −0.019(0.015)
Notes: a Columns 5 and 10 (3 years of exposure), table 3, p. 88. b Column 4, Table 1 p. 386. c Column 1, table 3 p. 43. d Table 2, p. 12. e Column 2, table 1 p. 279. f Column 1, table 3, p. 823. g Columns 2-4,
table 2, p. 186. h Section 4.2.2. Regressions of birth rates on distance, p. 813. i Column 1, table 2, p. 19. j Column 1, row 1, table 1, p. 12. k Effect of “abortion legal” and Model 4, table 2 p. 45. l Column 2
(estimate: β2 ), table 2, p. 983. m Table 1 p. 232. n Among nonwhite women, Medicaid: 0.0021(0.0011), parental consent:x -0.0003(0.0009). Column 4, Table 3 p. 485. column 4, Table 4 p. 486. o Table 6 p. 254.
p Column 8, table 5, p. 33. q See text on p. 1030. r Table 2 p. 943.
2 Background

2.1 Abortion Laws, Access, and Women’s Health

Globally, unintended pregnancies lead to approximately 46 million induced abortions each year (Van Ler-

berghe et al., 2005), and estimates suggest that worldwide, 25 million women sought unsafe abortions in

2014 (Ganatra et al., 2017). Unsafe abortions may result in as many as eight maternal deaths per hour

(World Health Organization, 2004).5 By the best available estimates, 13% of all maternal deaths are due

to complications surrounding clandestine and unsafe abortion, with these numbers being much higher in

certain settings (World Health Organization, 2011). The highest estimated rate of unsafe abortion is found

in the Latin America and Caribbean region where each year an estimated 4.2 million unsafe induced abor-

tions are carried out, accounting for 12% of all maternal deaths in the region (World Health Organization,

2011). This region also exhibits some of the world’s most conservative laws on abortion (United Nations,

2014).

Laws codifying access to abortion date from as far back as the early 20th century (Doan, 2009). How-

ever, the issue of abortion legalization remains a highly controversial social topic, with considerable vari-

ation in the availability and legality of elective abortion worldwide. From the 1970s onwards a number of

large-scale reforms have increased access to elective abortion, and these have been documented to have

considerable impacts on the life courses of women, children and families (Ananat et al., 2009; Bailey,

2013; Mitrut and Wolff, 2011; Pop-Eleches, 2006, 2010). However, the political debate around abortion

remains polarized worldwide, which is reflected by the huge differences in abortion laws across as well as

within countries (Berer, 2017). While some countries have increased legal restrictions on abortion, such

as the US, with as many as 334 abortion restrictions enacted during 2011-2016 (Conti et al., 2016), other

countries such as Ireland have gone in the opposite direction, legalizing elective abortion during the first

trimester (Li, 2018). With rapid globalisation, access to abortion is no longer a question only for local and

national governments but also an issue in the global arena. For example, abortion restrictions are at the

5 Unsafe abortion is defined by the WHO as a procedure for terminating an unintended pregnancy either by individuals
without the necessary skills or in an environment that does not conform to minimum medical standards, or both (Organization
et al., 1992).
6
center of recent global governance efforts made by the US government when the so called Mexico City

Policy (the Global Gag Rule) was reinstated under the Trump administration in 2017 (Starrs, 2017).

While improved access to modern contraceptives and sexual education is essential for lowering rates

of unwanted pregnancies and the demand for induced abortion that follows, unsafe abortion cannot be

eliminated through these efforts only (Grimes et al., 2006).6 Access to safe abortion is considered imper-

ative to the health of women and children (Grimes et al., 2006). Lack of access to legal and safe abortion

increases the risk of unsafe abortion methods with possibly severe complications including hemorrhage,

sepsis, infection and trauma. Unsafe abortion procedures lead to hospitalisation in an estimated 20-50% of

all cases, where severe complications from unsafe abortion lead to 367 deaths per 100,000 cases. This can

be compared to the risk of death after safe abortion which is 0.7 deaths per 100,000 procedures (Grimes

et al., 2006).

Abortion legalization is associated with decreased maternal morbidity and mortality (Grimes et al.,

2006). This association has been documented within the field of medicine and public health for multiple

countries (Benson et al., 2011) including Albania (Sahatci, 1993), Bangladesh (Chowdhury et al., 2007),

Nepal (Henderson et al., 2013), Romania (Serbanescu et al., 1995; Stephenson et al., 1992), Singapore

(Singh and Ratnam, 2015) and South Africa (Rees et al., 1997). The impact of abortion legalization on

women’s health is significant, for example, abortion-related maternal mortality in Romania fell by 67% and

by 40% in Singapore after induced abortion was legalized (Singh and Ratnam, 2015). A similar pattern of

abortion legalization and abortion-related morbidity has been documented in multiple countries. Existing

studies are mainly based on reviews of medical charts at selected hospitals in the US (Goldstein and Stewart,

1972; Stewart and Goldstein, 1971; Seward et al., 1973; Kahan et al., 1975), Guyana (Nunes and Delph,

1997), Nepal (Henderson et al., 2013) and South Africa (Mbele et al., 2006; Jewkes et al., 2002). There

is also evidence of lower abortion-related morbidity related to abortion legalization based on survey data

from hospitals in the US (Bracken et al., 1982) as well as South Africa (Jewkes et al., 2005).7 We are,

6 Even with perfect compliance and use of contraceptives, unwanted pregnancies will still remain as no modern method can
prevent pregnancy by 100% Warriner and Shah (2006) and the fact that sexual intercourse can occur without consent of the
woman.
7 The study by Bracken et al. (1982) is based on data from Hospital Discharge Survey (HDS) provided by the National

Center for Health Statistics for 1970 through 1977.

7
however, aware of no prior studies which are based on population-level data, and based on within-country

variation in abortion reforms.

2.2 Fertility, family planning and abortion laws in Mexico

Between the years of 1975 and 2015, the fertility rate in Mexico declined rapidly from roughly 6 children

per woman to approximately 2.2 children per woman. This major shift in fertility can be partially attributed

to changes in access to modern contraceptive methods in the country (Juarez et al., 2013). In 1975, the

Mexican government passed the General Population Law, which obliged the government to supply family

planning services and provide contraceptives via the public health care sector free of charge. In 1995,

family planning services were decentralized to the state level, where different states fund family planning to

various degrees, possibly making family planning services differentially available across states. Although

67% of all women of childbearing age in Mexico report using modern contraceptive methods (and 5% use

traditional and less efficient methods), it is estimated that more than half of all pregnancies are unintended.8

Estimates suggest that up to 54% of these unintended pregnancies are terminated (Juarez et al., 2013).

Mexico consists of 32 federal entities, 31 of which are federal states plus the federal district of Mexico

(also known as Mexico D.F. or Mexico City). In addition to the national constitution, each of the 32 federal

entities has its own state or local constitution, defined by its own legislative power. Abortion laws in all

of Mexico are determined at the state level (Becker, 2013). Mexico DF contains approximately 8% of

the entire population (8.9 million of Mexico’s 119.5 million inhabitants according to 2015 estimates) and,

since 2007, is the only state that allows for elective abortion during the first trimester.

Prior to the reform in Mexico DF, abortion laws were quite uniform across the 32 federal entities of

Mexico. Induced abortion continues to be considered a criminal offense with the risk of up to 30 years

imprisonment in many states, and legal abortion was only permitted in the limited cases of rape, threat to

the life of the mother, or severe malformation of the fetus. In practice, even in these limited cases, legal

abortion has been described by human rights organizations as extremely difficult to access due to rigid
8 Modern contraceptives are condoms, oral or/injectable/implants of hormones preventing ovulation, IUD, sterilization and
emergency contraception. Traditional or less efficient methods are calendar method or rhythm method, coitus interrupts, herbs
or teas. For a detailed account of modern and traditional methods, see for instance Hubacher and Trussell (2015).
8
legal barriers (Juarez et al., 2013). In the densely populated Mexico DF, only 62 abortions were legally

performed during 2001-2007 (Becker, 2013).

Induced abortion is a procedure or medical treatment for terminating pregnancy, and while induced

abortion under appropriately supervised settings is considered one of the safest medical procedures in

modern medicine, unsafe abortion is associated with substantially increased risks of severe morbidity and

mortality.9 The estimated rate of induced abortions for Mexico in 2006 was 33 abortions per 1,000 women

of fertile age (Juarez et al., 2008), which is considered high internationally (Becker, 2013). As a substitute

to legal options, abortions were performed in clandestine and often unsafe settings. In 2006 alone, medical

records from public hospitals show that an estimated 150,000 women in Mexico were treated for abortion-

related complications (Juarez et al., 2008). The most common method of induced abortion is believed

to be the abortifacient drug Misoprostol, which despite the strict legal restrictions in Mexico, has been

available in pharmacies since 1985 (Lara et al., 2011).10 Despite the fact Misoprostol and other abortifa-

cients formally require a doctor’s prescription in Mexico, studies show that abortifacients are frequently

sold over the counter without prescription (Lara et al., 2011). While a safe and well recognised method for

induced abortion when appropriately taken, instructions on dosage and usage of Misoprostol are generally

not available at pharmacies, leading to considerable risks when self administered (see eg Grimes (2005)).

2.3 The 2007 legal interruption of pregnancy reform in Mexico DF

The legislative assembly of the Federal District of Mexico voted to legalize elective abortion (termed legal

interruption of pregnancy, or ILE for its name in Spanish) on April 24, 2007, reforming Articles 145-148

of the penal code of Mexico DF, and Article 14 of the Health Code. These reforms were signed into law

9 Induced abortions in a safe setting are carried out by professional health care providers in safe environment and in line
with evidence based medicine. The procedure generally depends on gestational length of pregnancy. A safe induced abortion
usually entails either a surgical operation or medical procedure. During a surgical operation, the products of conception are
removed from the womb. The medical procedure is a non-invasive procedure that causes contractions of the womb, terminating
the pregnancy. Medical abortion procedures are safer and more cost-efficient compared to other methods for first trimester
abortions. It is common that the patient self-administers the medical abortion at home (Kulier et al., 2007). Induced abortion
under safe conditions exhibits a mortality rate below 1 per 100,000 procedures (Grimes, 2005).
10 Misoprostol (sometimes referred to as Cytotec, Arthrotec, Oxaprost, Cyprostol, Mibetec, Prostokos or Misotrol) is one

of the recommended substance for induced abortion by the WHO (Lara et al., 2011). Misoprostol is a prostaglandin with
the original purpose of curing gastric ulcers. It is also utilized for OB/GYN reasons such as induced abortion, post abortion
procedures and induced labor for delivery (Kulier et al., 2007).
9
the following day, and published in the official Gazette of the Federal District on April 26, 2007 (Ciudad

de México, 2007). The reforms, aiming at reducing the high number of unsafe abortions, were supported

by a coalition of pro-choice NGOs together with a growing movement for women’s reproductive health

rights.11 This immediately permitted women above the age of 18 to request legal interruption of pregnancy

at up to 12 weeks of gestation without restriction. Access for minors requires parental or guardian consent.

Under this law, induced abortion was made legal in both the public and private health care sectors.

Immediate implementation was made possible by collaboration between the Ministry of Health of

Mexico DF, members of the health department and international NGOs, which had thoroughly designed

a program for public provision of abortion services called the “the ILE program” and its implementation

even before the law was passed (Singh et al., 2012a). As such, abortion services were made available via

the public health care hospitals immediately after the law was passed in April 2007, although with lower

capacity and efficiency compared to current conditions. Abortion services were also quickly available in

the private health care sector (Blanco-Mancilla, 2011). Additionally, under this law sexual education in

schools was improved, and post-abortion contraceptives were made freely available directly from the health

clinics which provided abortions (Contreras et al., 2011). Records from public hospitals show that the

demand for post-abortion contraceptives is high (approximately 82% of all women accept contraceptives)

and that prevalence of repeated abortion procedures are low (Becker, 2013). On August 29, 2008 the

decision to pass the ILE law was ratified by the Supreme Court of Mexico, making Mexico DF, together

with Cuba and Uruguay, the most liberal jurisdiction in terms of abortion legislation in the entire Latin

American and Caribbean region (Fraser, 2015).

Figures from the Secretary of Health’s administrative data suggest that abortions were used by women

of all ages, though were disproportionately sought by younger (21-25 year-olds) and older women (36 year-

olds and above), with lower rates of abortion among 26 to 35 year olds. The proportion of all births by age

and all abortions in public health clinics by age is presented in Appendix Figure A1. Approximately half of

the abortions were sought by unmarried women (45.5% to single women, and 4.1% to divorced women),

with the remainder nearly evenly split between married women, or those in a stable union. Information
11 Abroader discussion of the reform’s social and legal setting is provided in Kulczycki (2011); Madrazo (2009), Blanco-
Mancilla (2011) and Johnson (2013).
10
regarding the extent to which women below the age of 18 have access to abortion services is relatively

scarce. However, according to a qualitative study by Tatum et al. (2012), the law on parental consent may

be differentially enforced depending on the caregiver. While Public Hospitals require parental consent,

only one out of three abortion providers in private health clinics require parental consent (Schiavon et al.,

2010). Women with residency outside Mexico DF can also access the public provision of abortion through

the Ministry of Health in Mexico DF (MOH-DF) but are charged with a sliding fee scale determined with

regard to the woman’s socioeconomic background. In 2010, 74% of all women who received an abortion

through the public health care sector were women living in Mexico DF, 24% were living in the state of

Mexico (which shares a border with Mexico DF) and 2% were living in other states (Mondragón y Kalb

et al., 2011).

Information regarding the private provision of abortion services is limited due to a lack of supervision

of the private market for legal abortion services (Becker, 2013). Despite the fact that safe abortion, at no or

low cost, is provided by the public health system in Mexico DF, women do seek abortion services within

the private sector. A descriptive study by Schiavon et al. (2012b) suggests that private abortion services

are provided at high costs (157–505 US dollars) and quality of care is inferior to that in the public sector,

given that the less safe and efficient “dilation and curettage” is used as the main method in the private

sector (71%). A suggested explanation for the high rates of usage of private care relates to beliefs that the

overall quality is higher in the private health sector (Schiavon et al., 2012b).

Records from public hospitals show that during the year of 2007, when the reform was implemented,

more than 7,000 abortion procedures were performed at 14 selected MOH-DF clinics. Over the years, the

MOH-DF abortion program expanded its services and became more efficient in meeting the high demand

for elective abortion. The MOH-DF program offers both surgical and medical abortion procedures and

is the main provider of medical abortion (Winikoff and Sheldon, 2012). The large shift from 25% of all

abortion procedures being medical in 2007 to as much as 74% in 2011 have played a key part of meeting

the demand and reducing complications and side-effects (Becker, 2013).12 As of 2015, approximately

150,000 abortions were carried out at the MOH-DF clinics.

12 Misoprostol alone was the main regimen for medical abortions in MOH-DF until 2011 when Mifepristone (combined with

Misoprostol) was introduced, making the medical abortion procedures provided by the ILE program more efficient and safe.
11
2.4 Regressive law changes as a response to legalizing abortion in Mexico DF

Almost immediately following Mexico DF’s ILE reform, a number of states began a series of counter-

legislations to change the respective sections of their constitutions or penal codes, defining the beginning

of human life as occurring at conception. Often, these legal responses directly referenced Mexico DF’s

ILE reform.13 Even in cases where they did not directly refer to the ILE reform, it seems highly likely that

the reform was a defining factor. For example, in the 20 years prior to the ILE reform there had been only

two constitutionally defined changes to the articles relating to abortion in the penal codes of all states of

Mexico (Gamboa Montejano and Valdés Robledo, 2014), compared to 18 changes between June 21, 2008

and November 17, 2009. Importantly, these reforms resulted in constitutional changes which recognised

life as beginning at conception, opening the door for potential homicide charges.

In Appendix Figure A2 we display the geographical distribution of law changes (progressive, regressive

or neutral) over the period under study. The only progressive reform refers to Mexico DF’s ILE reform,

while 18 states made regressive changes after the initial reform. We have compiled on a state-by-state basis

the exact dates the reforms were passed into law, and these are displayed in Appendix Table A1. To the

best of our knowledge, there exists no centralized record of the dates and laws which were altered in the

post ILE era, and as such we compiled these from our reading of legal source documents. In section 4 of

this paper we return to how we use the state and time variation in the passage of laws in our identification

strategy.

3 Data

3.1 Maternal morbidity, maternal mortality and birth records

Complete data on morbidity and mortality are available for both the public and private health care systems

in Mexico. Microdata on each hospital stay record the age and sex of the patient, the number of nights

13 For
example, the constitutional decree issued by the state of Nayarit when changing their penal code explicitly refers to
the changes in the penal and civil code of Mexico DF (p. 14) (Gobierno de Nayarit, 2009).
12
in hospital, as well as the principal diagnosis based on ICD-10 codes. There are approximately 165 mil-

lion single records for the period of 2004-2015 accounting for 558 million nights of hospitalisation. Of

these, 46 million visits and 84 million nights of hospitalisation are related to “Pregnancy, childbirth and

the puerperium” (the ICD-10 “O” code). These data are universal and include all hospital visits in the

country.14

Complete microdata are released in three different formats depending on the hospital type where treat-

ment is provided. Hospitals in the public health system are administered by one of two types of providers.

The first, the Mexican Secretariat of Health, is the ministry of health of the national government, and ac-

counts for 47.0% of all hospital stays related to pregnancy, childbirth and the puerperium in the period

under study. The second are hospitals run by public Social Security providers, principally the Mexican In-

stitute of Social Security (IMSS), and the State Workers’ Institute of Security and Social Services (ISSSTE),

which account for 29.5% of hospital stays in the ICD-10 “O” class. Finally, the remainder of hospital stays

(23.5% of ICD-10 “O” cases) are treated in private hospitals. All private hospitals are required to provide

information on each hospital stay in a standardised format, which is reported to the National Institute of

Statistics and Geography (INEGI).

All public hospitalisation records are freely available as microdata files. However, data from hospitals

run by the Secretariat of Health are available from 2000-2015 with the exact dates of hospitalisation, while

data from hospitals run by Social Security Providers are available only from 2004-2015, and only provide

the year of hospitalisation. Our principal analysis of impacts of abortion reform on maternal health use

these databases, where we compile state by year measures for key causes of morbidity for each year between

2004-2015. Data from the private system are available for remote processing by request from INEGI. We

follow a similar process with these microdata files, generating state by year values for the number of events

in key morbidity classes defined below. However, while private hospitals provide information on the cause

of hospitalisation, this is provided at a more highly aggregated level than public records. In particular, 10

different diagnosis classes are provided which map from the 76 diagnosis codes included in the three digit

ICD-10 “O” codes. We document the mapping for each diagnosis in the public and private sector morbidity

14 The only exception is that these databases do not include standard hospital-stays for newborns following birth.
13
data in Appendix Table A2. While our principal analysis focuses on the public data given the lower level

of aggregation available, we show that results in aggregate private-sector data are consistent with our main

results.

We focus on two particular morbidity classes when examining the impact of abortion reform on fe-

male health outcomes. These are abortion-related causes, and haemorrhage early in pregnancy. The first

outcome is typically examined when considering the impacts of unsafe abortion on women’s health in the

medical and public health literature. It includes all forms of morbidity classified in ICD-10 codes O02-

O08. A full discussion of this coding is provided in Singh and Maddow-Zimet (1999). We additionally

consider the impact of abortion reform on haemorrhage in early pregnancy. This is classified as haem-

orrhage prior to 20 weeks of gestation, and is coded from ICD-10 code O20. We focus on this outcome

given that haemorrhage (along with incomplete abortion) is one of the two most common complications of

unsafe abortion (World Health Organization, 2018; Gerdts et al., 2013), and given the widespread use of

misoprostol as an abortifacient agent in clandestine abortions prior to the ILE reform in Mexico DF. While

bleeding is a normal side-effect of misoprostol use as an abortive agent, when taken in unsupervised set-

tings misoprostol can lead to heavy bleeding and haemorrhage (Pourette et al., 2018).15 Together these two

outcomes cover 8 of the 76 ICD-10 code classes, but make up 11.1% of all maternal hospitalisations in the

years under study, or 21.5% of maternal morbidity when excluding deliveries (refer to Appendix Table A2

for a full description of all maternal morbidity causes). The remainder of the ICD codes are not examined

as outcomes as it is unlikely that they are sequelae of abortion (for example eclampsia or pre-eclampsia),

or are morbidities occurring in the puerperium period, and so unable to be sequelae of abortion.

Finally, measures of maternal mortality by state and year are generated from INEGI’s full mortality

register. This register classifies maternal deaths according to ICD-10 codes.16 Mexico’s register of mater-

nal deaths is recognised to be of high quality, with Mexico being classified as belonging to the “A-class”

15 Accounts of self administered abortion in a case study in Brazil described in Grimes et al. (2006), suggest that even
though the use of Misoprostol as an abortifacient increased safety, hospitalisation due to haemorrhage was the outcome in cases
of complications. They state: “Women would self-administer the drug orally and then seek medical assistance if the uterine
bleeding did not stop” (Grimes et al., 2006, p. 1916).
16 Formally, maternal deaths are defined by the WHO as “The death of a woman while pregnant or within 42 days of termi-

nation of pregnancy, irrespective of the duration and the site of the pregnancy, from any cause related to or aggravated by the
pregnancy or its management, but not from accidental or incidental causes”.
14
(World Health Organization, 1987) in the latest WHO report on maternal mortality trends. This data has

had particular improvements from 2001, and as such, we restrict our period of analysis to 2001-2016 (see

Schiavon et al. (2012b)).

Summary statistics of maternal morbidity and mortality are provided in Table 2. The total number of

cases of each morbidity class are described in panel A, and mortality outcomes, both for all maternal deaths,

and those only classified as owing to abortion, are provided in panel B. On average, morbidity outcomes

are various orders of magnitude higher than mortality outcomes. For example, the average quantity of

hospitalisations for abortion related causes was 8366 per state and year, versus 36 maternal deaths on

average, or 3 maternal deaths when considering only those classified as owing to abortive causes.

In order to benchmark the Mexico abortion reforms’ impact on fertility with respect to the wider lit-

erature, we also require aggregate data on fertility by state. We generate these state-level measures from

publicly available microdata on births provided by INEGI. We use each birth register occurring to women

aged 15-49 over the time period of 2001-2013; a sample of 30,340,544 births. State by year averages of

the number of births and birth per 1,000 fertile aged women are displayed in panel C of Table 2.

Vital statistics for births in Mexico are compiled by INEGI based on birth registries completed by each

parent or guardian at the civil registry, rather than being based on birth certificates issued at hospitals (as is

the case, for example with the National Vital Statistics System in the USA and in various developing and

emerging economies, like Chile and Argentina).17 The birth register is released once per year, containing

all births registered in that year, as well as the year the birth occurred. In order to avoid problems of under-

reporting, differential reporting over time, and double-reporting, we collate all birth registers between

2002-2016, and then keep all births registered within 3 years of the date of birth.18 This implies that we

have complete birth registers based on birth years up to (and including) 2013.19 Unregistered births will
17 Using data from the 2010 census and birth records up until 2009, a recent (backward looking) analysis suggests that 93.4%

of all births in Mexico were registered within 1 year of birth of the child, and in total, 94.2% of births are eventually registered
at the national level (Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía, 2012).
18 This allows us to record births even when they are registered months after birth (up to 36 months following the birth).

Considering additional registration lags results in virtually unchanged estimates, as nearly all ever-registered births are registered
within 3 years of birth. This is very similar to the methodology employed by Mexico’s population authority in their calculation
of official demographic trends (Consejo Nacional de Población, 2012).
19 While these birth registers are not universal, they are considered as being of very good quality compared to many other

registry systems in developing economies. On average, dated estimates suggest that across all developing countries 41% of
births are unregistered, and this figure for Latin America alone is 14% (UNICEF, 2005).
15
 Table 2: Summary Statistics on Morbidity in All Public Primary Care

Variable Obs. Mean Std. Dev. Min. Max.

Panel A: Morbidity Outcomes
Total Number of Deliveries in Public Hospitals 384 44405 34708 7109 211999
Total Inpatient Cases for ICD O codes, except births 384 47018 32696 9085 172656
Total Inpatient Cases for Abortion-Related Causes 384 8366 6587 1454 37857
Total Inpatient Cases for Haemorrhage Early in Pregnancy 384 1765 1208 252 6426
Total Inpatient Days for Abortion-Related Causes 384 11841 9681 1805 49671
Total Inpatient Days for Haemorrhage Early in Pregnancy 384 3812 2961 495 14781
Panel B: Mortality Outcomes
Total Number of Maternal Deaths 512 36 33 1 182
Total Number of Maternal Deaths due to Abortion 512 3 3 0 15
Panel C: Demographic Outcomes
Population of 15-49 Year-old Women 512 860298 741558 116430 4196244
Total Number of Births 416 72934 58531 10980 300227
Birth rate per 1,000 women 416 88 10 63 129
Each observation is a state×year cell. Mexico is composed of 32 States. The number of cells varies due to the number of years of
data availability. In panel A, morbidity data is displayed for 12 years (2004-2015). Values are generated from all inpatient cases
as classified from microdata from the primary care (hospital) records from all public hospitals, both those administered by the
Secretariat of health and the Social Security System. Each type of morbidity is classified by ICD-10 codes. In Panel B, mortality
outcomes are displayed for 16 years (2001-2016). In panel C, data on population is displayed for 16 years (2001-2016), and data on
births is displayed for 13 years (2001-2013). Following CONAPO, the last three years of birth outcomes are suppressed to account
for reporting outside of the period of birth.

only be a problem if rates of birth registration change differentially between regions of Mexico over the

period under study. Empirical evidence on changes in birth records between 1999 and 2009 do not suggest

a strong relationship between reform and non-reform areas, and changes in rates of coverage (Instituto

Nacional de Estadística y Geografía, 2012).

The INEGI Birth Register contains information about the date of birth, actual birthplace and the official

residency of the mother. In addition, information on maternal characteristics such as age, total fertility,

educational attainment, marital status and employment status are recorded. In principal analysis we exam-

ine full state by year aggregate figures for each of the 32 states. Summary statistics are provided in Table

2. In additional specifications we consider birth rates for quinquennial age groups (15-19, 20-24, 25-29,

30-34, 35-39 and 45-49), where state aggregates are calculated in an identical manner, however subsetting

only to births occurring to each women aged in the relevant group at the moment she gives birth.

16
3.2 Administrative records on criminal offenses, survey data on sexual behaviour

and additional data sources

To examine De Jure sentencing of abortion, we use administrative records from Mexico’s Judicial Statistics

on Penal Matters provided by INEGI. These records contain microdata registering each prison sentence

handed down by the Mexico judiciary, the reason for the sentence, and the length of each sentence. It

comprise the universe of judiciary decisions in the country based on the first legal judgment, and so does

not include any subsequent appeals. We calculate prison sentence lengths from a categorical variable which

records sentence lengths in binned windows (ranging from 0-2 months to > 20 years). These bin widths in

microdata do not change over the period under study, and are identical in each state of the country. Trends

in De Jure sentencing of abortion are presented in Appendix Figure A3.

For a small number of supplementary tests we use survey data from the Mexican Family Life Survey

(MxFLS). The MxFLS is a nationally and regionally representative longitudinal data set that follows the

Mexican population over time, covering various topics regarding the well-being of individuals including

information on reproductive health.20 The survey was conducted in three waves during 2002-2003, 2005-

2006 and 2009-2012.

We use the reproductive health module from the MxFLS which collects information on contraceptive

knowledge and usage as well as information on sexual behavior such as the number of sexual partners.

This sample consists of a panel of women aged 15-44 who completed the reproductive health questionnaire

resulting in a total of 5,404 women. Summary statistics for reproductive health across regions are provided

in Appendix Table A3) and show that average knowledge of at least any kind of modern contraceptive

methods are generally high across all regions, while the average usage of any kind of contraceptives and

modern contraceptives are higher in Mexico DF compared to other states.

We collect a number of additional variables measured at the level of state and year. These are ei-

ther used to calculate rates of exposure for health and fertility outcomes (in the case of population), or

20 The MxFLS dataset is publicly available, developed and operated by the Iberoamerican University (UIA) and the Center
for Economic Research and Teaching (CIDE) and also supported by multiple institutions in both Mexico (INEGI and National
Institute of Public Health) and the USA (Duke University and Universities of California, Los Angeles).
17
as time-varying controls in regression analyses. The population of women aged from 15-49 by state is

accessed from the National Population Council of Mexico (CONAPO). Time-varying controls are com-

piled to capture possible confounders of abortion policy, namely education, health investment and access,

economic development, and women’s social inclusion. We collect measures for each state and year from

2001 to 2016 describing the proportion of each state living in poverty, the proportion of women who are

economically active, the average level of completed schooling of the population, the average salary paid

to full-time workers, the proportion of the population with access to health-care facilities, and the rollout

of the national health insurance program Seguro Popular.21 Summary statistics for each variable as well

as a list of sources are provided in Appendix Table A4. These variables are merged by year and state to

the morbidity, mortality, and birth data discussed earlier in this section.

4 Methodology

In order to examine the joint impact of the ILE reform and the regressive law changes in a single model,

we begin by estimating the following difference-in-differences (DD) specification:

Healthst = β0 + β1 ILEst + β2 Regressivest + Xst′ Γ + ϕs + µt + εst . (1)

Here Health refers to average rates of morbidity or mortality in state s at time t, and ILE and Regressive

refer to the post-ILE and post-Regressive Law changes in affected states. Our parameters of interest are β1

and β2 . We include state and year fixed effects as ϕs and µt respectively, and examine stability to the in-

clusion of the time-varying controls Xst listed in section 3.2.22 There are 32 states in Mexico (including the

21 Mexico’s General Health Law underwent a major reform in 2003, which intended to provide 50 million Mexican citizens
lacking social security with subsidized and publicly financed health insurance. The core of this reform was the health insurance
program Seguro Popular (SP). The “People’s Insurance” or Seguro Popular was launched in 2002, offering health service free
of charge or subsidized to those without formal health insurance.
22 Given the dynamics observed in raw outcomes (refer to Appendix Figures A4, A5 and A6), we believe it is inappropriate

to estimate DD models with state-specific linear time trends, ϕs · t. As is well known, the inclusion of state-specific linear
time-trends in DD models where the reform impact is not captured by a simple trend break tends to result in biased parameter
estimates, and this problem is “exacerbated when only a few observations are available before the policy shock” (Wolfers, 2006,
p. 1807). This is precisely the situation in the empirics of this paper, with impacts often not becoming fully appreciable in the
first reform year (2007), or emerging with the adoption of new abortion technologies. As such we do not estimate DD models
with state-specific time trends, preferring to estimate full event studies examining trends, and showing robustness to synthetic
18
Federal District), and these laws are defined at the level of the state. In order to account for the possibility

of unobserved correlations of outcomes for women within a state, standard errors are clustered by state. In

practice, the quantity of clusters (32) is on the border of ‘rule-of-thumb’ type minimum cluster sizes for

asymptotic validity of traditional clustered standard errors, and additionally, the states vary considerably in

size. Given this, we estimate standard errors using a wild bootstrap, with Rademacher resampling weights.

Our outcomes of interest for this procedure are the measures of maternal morbidity and mortality dis-

cussed in section 3, as well as fertility in order to quantify any reform effect on birth rates. We thus

implement the procedure for a measure of all abortion morbidity, morbidity due to haemorrhage early in

pregnancy, and total maternal mortality and maternal mortality due to abortion. In each case in the main

outcomes, we focus on rates of morbidity and mortality per the population of fertile aged women. We

express our outcomes in this way for two reasons. The first is that it allows us to capture the full effect

of the reform. As we will show that the abortion reform reduces fertility, if we express our outcomes as

morbidity or mortality per live birth, this is equivalent to a partial impact, removing any impact of the

reform which flows from the ability to avoid undesired, and potentially risky, births. In practice, we are

interested in the total impact of the reform, which consists of the reduction in morbidity and mortality due

to fewer births, as well as any direct impact the reform may have on the composition of mothers giving

birth. Secondly, this allows us to ignore any challenges arising from the endogenous decision of whether

or not to engage in legal abortion. If we instead report the impact of the law on rates of morbidity and

mortality per live birth, we will be confounding our estimates due to the fact that a non-random group of

women choose to proceed with births following the reform, and this group may be selectively more or less

healthy than the women who elect to abort.23

For difference-in-difference estimates to capture the causal effects of abortion laws, we require a par-

allel trend assumption to hold, or that outcomes in each of the “Regressive”, “ILE” and untreated states

would have evolved similarly in the absence of abortion reforms. We provide a partial test of this, and ad-

control methods.
23 Among other things, women seeking abortions are younger and more likely to come from lower socioeconomic background

compared to the average Mexican mother (40% of women seeking abortion in ILE during 2008-2010 had 9 or less years of
schooling, only 30% were employed and 75% are younger than 30 (Mondragón y Kalb et al., 2011)). Thus, these women may
be either less or more healthy on average, and less or more likely to suffer complications conditional on giving birth.
19
ditionally quantify any dynamic reform effects, by estimating the following DD event-study specification:

∑
8 ∑
7
Healthst = α0 + δ− j ∆ILEs,t + j + γ−k ∆Regressives,t + k + Xst′ Γ + ϕs + µt + εst (2)
j =−3 k =−5

we normalise both δ and γ setting δ−1 = 0 and γ−1 = 0. These event-study specifications are increas-

ingly common in DD settings, and here we adopt the notation of Freyaldenhoven et al. (2018). In this

specification, we are interested in the leads and the lags of the policy changes, where leads capture any

prevailing trends prior to the reform, and lags show the change in health outcomes following the reform’s

implementation. In specification 2, we present the model for morbidity data available from 2003 to 2015.

In this case we are able to estimate 3 leads and 8 lags of the ILE reform, and 5 leads and 7 lags of regressive

law changes. In the case of mortality or fertility where longer periods of data are available, lags and leads

are modified to provide a fully saturated model in each case. As in specification 1, year and state fixed

effects absorb time-invariant and state-invariant factors, and standard errors are clustered by state with a

wild bootstrap.

Although specification 2 provides evidence in favour of parallel (pre-)trends if we can reject that each

δ j = γ j = 0 ∀ j < 0, we may nonetheless be concerned with unobserved heterogeneity between treated

and non-treated states. As an additional test and a plausability check of estimates from equations 1-2 for

the impact of the ILE reform only, we construct a synthetic control estimate to compare with Mexico DF.

This procedure is particularly suitable to quantify the effect of the ILE reform in Mexico DF where there

is a single treated unit, however not for the Regressive policy changers where a number of states adopt

at different points in time. Our interest is to quantify the impact of the ILE reform, by comparing health

outcomes in Mexico DF, the treated area, with outcomes in the rest of Mexico. This consists of determining

the counterfactual state for a single treated state, following Abadie et al.’s (2010) synthetic control method

where the single counterfactual “synthetic control” unit is generated based on a re-weighted pool of all

the untreated states. This counterfactual is chosen to minimise the matrix norm based on the distance

between average outcomes in the pre-treatment period, and the estimated average treatment effect on the

treated (ATT) is inferred as the difference between the treated unit and the synthetic control unit in the

post-treatment period. Our implementation of the synthetic control procedure is standard, as outlined in
20
Abadie et al. (2010). The “donor” pool from which we calculate synthetic controls include each of the

remaining states with the exception of neighbouring Mexico State, in which a non-trivial proportion of

abortions were accessed by women. We return to examine spillover impacts more completely in section

5.4.

In order to conduct inference on the estimated treatment effect, we similarly follow Abadie et al. (2010),

and undertake permutation inference. In graphical analysis, we calculate identical synthetic controls for

the 30 untreated donor states, and generate placebo reform estimates assuming an identical reform timing.

We then compare the true reform impact in each year with the impact for each of the placebo estimates in

this year, to determine whether the estimated impact in the treated region is large compared with placebo

cases where no substantial impact should be observed. When considering inference on a single ATT based

on the mean post-treatment decline, we implement permutation inference comparing our main effect with

the effect in all potential control states, and all potential treatment periods, as suggested in Abadie et al.

(2010, p. 497).24 This provides a larger pool of placebo outcomes, giving greater precision to reported

p-values resulting from permutation inference.

5 Results

5.1 Abortion Laws and Fertility Outcomes

The impact of changes in the cost or availability of legal abortion on fertility outcomes have been well

documented in the economic literature. Estimates from a range of contexts are summarised in Table 1.

We present estimates of the impact of abortion laws which result the loosening of restrictions in Panel A,

and those which result in the tightening of access or increasing of sanctions in Panel B. Across studies on

24 In particular, the p-value associated with the ATT for the impact of ILE on health outcomes is calculated as:
∑31 ∑2014
1{| α̂1, 2007 | ≤ | α̂t,s |}
p = s=2 t =2004
Ns,t

where α̂s,t refers to the average post-treatment difference between the treated (or placebo) unit and its synthetic control for state s
where the (placebo) treatment is assigned as occurring in year t. Here state s = 1 refers to Mexico DF and the true treatment year
is t = 2007, and so α̂1, 2007 is the true treatment effect, while permutations of each state×year pair (2, . . . , 31)×(2004 . . . 2014)
are placebo trials. Ns,t refers to the total number of placebo permutations.
21
abortion legalization in the US, Nepal, Norway and Romania we observe a drop in fertility (mainly among

younger and low SES women) of between 1.2-7% (see panel A in Table 1). Studies on the impact of

regressive abortion law changes (including parental consent laws and restricted funding of abortions) find

considerably more heterogeneous results, with results ranging from significant reductions in birth rates

(Kane and Staiger, 1996), insignificant impacts (Levine et al., 1996), and increases in rates of birth (Lahey,

2014) (refer to panel B in Table 1).

Table 3: Difference-in-Differences Estimates of Abortion Reforms on Fertility

Births per 1,000 Women

(1) (2) (3) (4)
Post-ILE Reform (DF) -6.091*** -5.608*** -4.600*** -4.838***
(0.671) (0.698) (1.202) (1.367)
Post Regressive Law Change -1.824* -1.752 -1.901* -1.802
(1.100) (1.248) (1.058) (1.318)

Observations 416 416 416 416

Mean of Dependent Variable 87.643 87.643 87.643 87.643
Mean of Dependent Variable (Mexico DF) 89.021 89.021 89.021 89.021
Mean of Dependent Variable (Regressive States) 90.561 90.561 90.561 90.561
State and Year FEs Y Y Y Y
Population Weights Y Y
Time-Varying Controls Y Y
Each column displays a difference-in-differences regression of the impact of abortion reform on rates of fertility. Fertility
is measured as the number of births per 1,000 fertile aged women each year. Time-varying controls are documented in
section 3.2. All standard errors are clustered at the level of the state using a wild clustered bootstrap procedure.

Our results from the Mexican abortion reforms suggest broadly similar fertility impacts to those ob-

served in other settings following the elimination of abortion restrictions. We provide a summary DD

estimate for Mexico in the case of progressive (ILE) and regressive reforms for comparison in Table 1.

These estimates are taken from Table 3 which displays DD estimates of the impact of reforms on birth

rates. In Table 3 we present population-weighted and unweighted results, where the population refers to

the total number of fertile aged women in each state by year cell. Columns 1-2 are baseline DD models

including only time and state fixed effects, while columns 3-4 add in time-varying control described in

section 3.2. In general, across specifications, results are quite stable in suggesting a significant reduction

in births in Mexico DF following the ILE reform. Depending on estimation weights, we observe a reduc-

22
tion of between 4.6 and 6.1 births per 1,000 women, or a reduction of between 5.3 and 6.8% in fertility

rates compared with pre-reform levels in the state. Our preferred estimates are those including population

weights with full time-varying controls, which suggest a reduction of 4.8 births per 1,000 women of fer-

tile age in the years following the ILE reform, or a 5.4% reduction in birth rates in Mexico DF. We note

that this reduction is similar to that documented following Roe v. Wade in the US (Levine et al., 1999;

Gruber et al., 1999; Ananat et al., 2007), though slightly smaller than that reported by Pop-Eleches (2010)

in Romania. In the case of states passing regressive laws altering their penal codes or state constitutions

related to abortion, we observe much weaker evidence to suggest any notable effect on fertility, though if

anything estimates point to a slight reduction in rates of fertility in the years following reforms. Depending

on the model, point estimates vary from -1.9 to -1.7 births per 1,000 women, or a 1.9 to 2% reduction in

rates of fertility. In preferred estimates weighting for the population of fertile women, these results are not

statistically significant at the 10% level. We return to examine the nature of these legal reforms in more

detail in section 5.4, revisiting the small estimated impacts on birth rates.

Figure 1: Event Studies for Fertility Rates in Progressive and Regressive Abortion Reforms
5
5
0

0
−5
−10

−5
−15

−10
−20

−6 −5 −4 −3 −2 −1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 −8 −7 −6 −5 −4 −3 −2 −1 0 1 2 3 4 5
Time to Reform Time to Reform

Point Estimate 95% CI Point Estimate 95% CI

(a) Progressive Abortion Reform (ILE) (b) Regressive Abortion Laws (Legislative Tightening)

Notes: Event studies document the evolution of birth rates per 1,000 women surrounding the passage of abortion reforms. Each
point estimate refers to the change in rates between treated and non-treated states, compared to their baseline differential (1 year
prior to the reform). The left-hand panel shows the difference between Mexico DF and untreated states surrounding the passage
of the ILE reform. The right-hand panel shows the difference between regressive policy changers and non-changers around
the (time-varying) date that each reform was passed. In each case the 95% confidence intervals are shaded, and are based on
wild-bootstrap clustered standard errors.

We provide full event studies corresponding to the passage of progressive and regressive reforms in
23
Figure 1. In the left-hand panel we observe a reduction in rates of fertility in Mexico DF when compared

with all non-reform states, which becomes statistically significant from 1 year post-reform (2008) onwards.

This is in line with lags in birth rates expected to be observed approximately 7-9 months following the

passage of abortion reforms due to the gestational period and limits on gestational length when undertaking

abortion. In the pre-reform period, all estimates are not statistically distinguishable from zero, providing

some supporting evidence of the parallel trends assumption in the pre-reform period. While we note that

point estimates seem to suggest a slight upwards trend, we return to examine the stability of these estimates

to a judiciously chosen synthetic control group in the paragraphs below.

The right-hand panel of Figure 1 documents similar point estimates and standard errors for states al-

tering their constitutions or criminal codes to increase legal sanctions on abortion. While estimates are

displayed in separate panels, as described in equation 2 these are estimated in a single specification imply-

ing both figures control for reforms implemented in other states. In the case of regressive reforms, event

studies agree with average DD estimates in suggesting no statistically distinguishable effects of the reform,

while point estimates point to, if anything, a slight reduction in fertility in the post-reform period. Once

again, there is no evidence of statistically distinguishable prevailing trends in the pre-reform period.

DD and event study estimates base the control group on all non-reform states. As a consistency check

on these results and to ensure that estimates for the impact of the ILE reform are not driven by any pre-

existing differential trends, we also compare outcomes in Mexico DF with those in a single synthetic control

state. The difference between outcomes in Mexico DF and the synthetic control state are documented in

Figure 2. Here we observe that while there was a downward trend in birth rates in DF including prior to

the reform,25 synthetic control results suggest that this decline accelerated following the implementation

of ILE in 2007 when comparing Mexico DF with the synthetic control state. Figure 2a shows the trend in

Mexico DF (solid line) as compared to the synthetic control (dashed line), where the synthetic control is

chosen to minimise the RMSE in the difference between these two rates prior to the reform. The fertility

rates in Mexico DF are substantially below those of the synthetic control, and appear to diverge over time.

The average difference in rates of birth per 1,000 women over the time-period under study is 6.8 births
25 This is in line with a general trend in declining fertility across the country, which began in the 1960’s or 1970’s depending
on the state (Tuiran et al., 2004).
24
(comparable to the DD results discussed above), and this difference is as large as 15 births per 1,000 women

6 years following the ILE reform. When cast in terms of the average fertility rates of Mexico DF in the

pre-reform period (89 births per 1,000 women), this accounts for approximately a 7.5% reduction.

Figure 2: Fertility in Mexico DF and a Synthetic Control Group

Treatment (D.F.) Synthetic Control Mexico D.F. Placebo Permutations

100
10
Rate of Births per 1,000 Women

90 5

0
80

−5

70
−10

60 −15
2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013
Year Year

(a) Synthetic Control (b) Inference

Notes: Left-hand panel displays birth rates per 1,000 women aged 15-49 in Mexico DF (solid line), and a synthetic control
formed from the remaining 30 states (excluding Mexico DF and Mexico State). The synthetic control is chosen based on birth
rates in all pre-reform years (2001-2006). Right hand panel displays the difference between Mexico DF and its synthetic control
(thick solid line), and 30 other placebo permutations, where the remaining states are considered as treated in 2006, and their
synthetic control is determined based on an identical procedure as in Mexico DF.

In Figure 2b, we compare the synthetic control estimates for Mexico DF with a series of placebo reforms

for each of the remaining 30 states to determine whether the estimated impacts are relatively large compared

with contexts in which a zero impact would be expected. In initial years, particularly in 2008, we do not

observe that outcomes in Mexico DF are extreme when compared to placebo cases, and so cannot suggest

an immediate statistically significant effect. However, in general we observe that over time, differences

in Mexico DF become more extreme than all placebo outcomes. From 4 years post-reform, the difference

between Mexico DF and its synthetic control is larger in absolute terms than any of the 30 placebo changes.

In Appendix Figure A7 we compare this mean outcome with a null distribution based on permutations of

treatment by state and year. We observe that the outcome observed in Mexico DF is extreme with respect

to the null distribution. Only 4.2% of placebo iterations have a more extreme outcome than that observed

in Mexico DF following the ILE reform, and this falls to 0.3% if considering only those which suggest
25
a larger reduction than in Mexico DF (corresponding to two- and one-tailed p-values of 0.042 and 0.003

respectively).

5.2 Maternal Morbidity

Estimates for the impact of abortion reforms on maternal morbidity are presented based on a range of

methodologies, and for the maternal health measures outlined in section 3. Difference-in-difference esti-

mates of the impact of the ILE reform and subsequent restrictive law changes on morbidity are presented

in Table 4. All coefficients are cast as the effect of law changes on morbidity per 1,000 women. We ob-

serve that, on average, conditional on subsequent restrictive reforms, the ILE reform resulted in a reduction

in morbidity by approximately 0.85 to 1.1 cases per 1,000 women when considering all abortion-related

morbidity, or be 0.8 to 0.9 cases per 1,000 women when considering the incidence of haemorrhage early

in pregnancy. When compared to average rates of morbidities of these conditions, this is approximately

a 10% reduction in abortion related morbidity, and a 40% reduction in rates of haemorrhage. Results are

robust to weighting or not by the population of each state, and to the inclusion of time-varying controls.

In the case of subsequent restrictive reforms, we find in general quite weak and noisy evidence when

examining whether these reforms shifted morbidity outcomes. For abortion related morbidity, we find

no significant impacts across specifications reported in Table 4. And in the case of haemorrhage early in

pregnancy, in unweighted DD models we observe a marginally significant reduction in morbidity following

a regressive change in laws, however this is rendered insignificant with the introduction of population

weights, suggesting that if anything, this reduction is driven by smaller states. In general, this evidence

does not suggest a consistently significant result of the introduction of restrictive laws, although point

estimates are in general negative. When instead of the total number cases we examine the total number

of inpatient days (Appendix Table A5), we similarly observe a large reduction following Mexico’s ILE

reform, and no significant impact in the case of regressive reforms.

26
 Table 4: Difference-in-Differences Estimates of Legal Reforms on Morbidity

Abortion Related Morbidity Haemorrhage Early in Pregnancy

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8)
Post-ILE Reform (DF) -1.048*** -1.130*** -0.994*** -0.857** -0.939*** -0.900*** -0.933*** -0.809***
(0.235) (0.239) (0.339) (0.423) (0.109) (0.105) (0.196) (0.162)
Post-Regressive Law Change -0.139 -0.081 -0.256 -0.170 -0.309* -0.198 -0.334* -0.175
(0.322) (0.350) (0.291) (0.338) (0.181) (0.140) (0.177) (0.125)

27
Observations 384 384 384 384 384 384 384 384
Mean of Dependent Variable 10.336 10.336 10.336 10.336 2.343 2.343 2.343 2.343
State and Year FEs Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y
Population Weights Y Y Y Y
Time-Varying Controls Y Y Y Y
Notes: Each column displays a difference-in-differences regression of the impact of abortion reform on rates of morbidity (inpatient cases). Each morbidity
class is measured as cases per 1,000 fertile aged women each year, and average levels in the full set of data are available at the foot of the table. All standard
errors are clustered at the level of the state.
 We examine the DD estimates in more details in Figures 3 and 4, where the treatment indicator in each

of the ILE and Regressive cases is interacted with a full set of lags and leads. Figure 3 examines outcomes

for haemorrhage, and Figure 4 examines outcomes for abortion-related morbidity. In both cases, panel

A shows the event study for Mexico DF surrounding the ILE reform, and panel B shows the event study

for regressive states. In each case, population weights and the full set of time-varying controls are used.

In Figure 3 we observe an immediate sharp decline in rates of haemorrhage in Mexico DF following the

adoption of ILE. Additionally, we observe little evidence of prevailing differences in treated and untreated

states before the reform, with the third and second lead being located close to zero. In the case of regressive

states (panel B), we observe a similar quite flat profile prior to the reform. Following the reform, while

we observe a small reduction in rates of haemorrhage, this reduction is never statistically distinguishable

from zero at 95% confidence intervals.

Figure 3: Event Studies for Rates of Haemorrhage Early in Pregnancy
.5

.5
0

0
−.5

−.5
−1

−1
−1.5

−1.5
−2

−2

−3 −2 −1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 −5 −4 −3 −2 −1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Time to Reform Time to Reform

Point Estimate 95% CI Point Estimate 95% CI

(a) Progressive Abortion Reform (ILE) (b) Regressive Abortion Laws (Legislative Tightening)

Notes: Event studies document the evolution of rates of haemorrhage early in pregnancy per 1,000 women surrounding the
passage of abortion reforms. Each point estimate refers to the change in rates between treated and non-treated states, compared
to their baseline differential (1 year prior to the reform). The left-hand panel shows the difference between Mexico DF and
untreated states surrounding the passage of the ILE reform. The right-hand panel shows the difference between regressive
policy changers and non-changers around the (time-varying) date that each reform was passed. In each case the 95% confidence
intervals are shaded, and are based on wild-bootstrap clustered standard errors.

When considering rates of abortion morbidity, event studies document larger prevailing (pre-reform)

differences between DF and untreated states, although with wider confidence intervals. This agrees with

simple trends in outcomes documented in Appendix Figure A4, which suggest an increase in morbidity
28
 2
Figure 4: Event Studies for Rates of Abortion Morbidity

2
0

0
−2

−2
−4

−4
−3 −2 −1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 −5 −4 −3 −2 −1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Time to Reform Time to Reform

Point Estimate 95% CI Point Estimate 95% CI

(a) Progressive Abortion Reform (ILE) (b) Regressive Abortion Laws (Legislative Tightening)

Notes: Refer to notes to Figure 3. Identical event studies are estimated, however now for Abortion related morbidity (ICD codes
O02-O08).

due to abortions recorded in Mexico DF in the year 2005 that were not seen in the rest of the country.

This drives the negative (but not statistically significant) pre-reform value observed in the third lead of

Figure 4a, prior to the steady reduction observed in the post-ILE years. In the case of states which altered

legislation in response to ILE, we observe very little evidence of an impact of these reforms on abortion

morbidity in 4b. In both the pre- and post-reform period, all estimates are not statistically distinguishable

from zero, and are centred around a null impact.

In Figure 5 we present results based on a consistency check comparing rates of haemorrhage early in

pregnancy and rates of morbidity for all abortion related causes in Mexico DF and in a synthetic control

state. In Panel A we observe an immediate and sharp fall in rates of haemorrhage early in pregnancy, falling

from approximately 2.3 cases per 1,000 fertile aged women to approximately 1.3 cases per 1,000 women.

This agrees with DD and event study results documented above. Additionally, this supports claims from

the medical literature that haemorrhage is one of the major drivers of maternal morbidity and mortality

following unsafe abortions (World Health Organization, 2011), as the appearance of a legal and sterile

alternative to clandestine abortion resulted in an immediate a 43% reduction in hospitalisations resulting

from haemorrhage early in pregnancy. In the sub-set of data for which the month as well as the year of

29
hospitalisation is recorded (those in hospitals administered by the Secretary of Health), we observe that

this fall occurs precisely in the month that abortion was legalised, suggesting that changes in haemorrhage

morbidity were immediate with the arrival of new legislation (see Appendix Figure A6).

In Panel B of Figure 5 we present trends in rates of morbidity due to abortive causes. In this case

we observe a more gradual reduction in morbidity, with a clear difference 4 years post-reform. In longer

trends from public hospital data displayed in Appendix Figure A5, descriptive figures do suggest that

this was a turning point in Mexico DF, with a peak in 2008, after a steady increase from 2000, and then

a steady decline in the total number of cases of hospitalisation up until 2015. In the case of abortion

morbidity, it is important to note that the procedure used for abortions realized under the auspices of ILE

has changed over time, which may partially explain the delay in observed impacts on morbidity. Initially,

the majority of abortions were performed by surgical procedures (manual vacuum aspiration or dilation and

curettage) (75%) compared to medical abortions (25%). This gradually changed in subsequent years, with

medical abortion procedures reaching 74% in 2011, and the use of dilation and curettage was eliminated

entirely (in accordance with WHO recommendations for first-trimester abortions). In addition, the quality

of medical abortions performed has also improved, due to the introduction of mifepristone (combined with

misoprostol) in 2011 (Becker, 2013).26 The large rise in medical abortion has both improved the safety of

the program and enabled for the high demand for elective abortion to be met.

In Figure 6 we present a visual representation of permutation inference for synthetic control estimates

following Abadie et al. (2010). In the left-hand panel, we compare the difference between haemorrhage

morbidity in Mexico DF and its synthetic control with placebo differences in each other state in Mexico

compared to its own synthetic control. In the first post-reform year, the true estimate exceeds all other

placebo iterations, and this largely remains to be true in subsequent years, although from 5 years post-

reform a number of more extreme outcomes are observed in certain (generally smaller) states. To calculate

an exact permutation p-value, we follow the state and year permutation procedure, generating the null

distribution displayed in Appendix Figure A8. A two-tailed test suggests a p-value of 0.09, and a one

26 The introduction of mifepristone in 2011 allowed for the use of the perceived “gold standard” medical abortion procedure
according to the WHO, which is a combination of mifepristone and misoprostol (instead of misoprostol alone). This regimen
is more efficient and causes less side-effects (Becker, 2013).
30
 Figure 5: Morbidity Outcomes in Mexico DF and a Synthetic Control Group

Treatment (D.F.) Synthetic Control Treatment (D.F.) Synthetic Control

Rate of Haemorrhage Morbidity per 1,000 Women

Rate of Abortion Morbidity per 1,000 Women

2.5
13

12
2

11

1.5
10

1 9
2005 2010 2015 2005 2010 2015
Year Year

(a) Haemorrhage Early in Pregnancy (b) Abortion Morbidity

Notes: Left-hand panel displays all morbidity classified as ICD codes O02-O08 (for reasons relating to abortion). Right hand
panel displays morbidity for haemorrhage early in pregnancy (prior to week 20 of gestation). In each case synthetic controls
are based on a pool of the 30 other states of Mexico (excluding Mexico DF and Mexico State), and are selected based on rates
of abortion morbidity in all pre-reform years. Morbidity is per 1,000 women aged 15-49 residing in the state.

tailed test suggests a p-value of 0.06, respectively implying that only 9% of placebo outcomes result in an

average post-placebo change which is more extreme than the true post-treatment change in D.F, and only

6% of placebos have a larger reduction. In the right-hand panel of Figure 6 we observe similar placebo

estimates for abortion related morbidity. In line with the slower-reduction in abortion-related morbidity,

we do not observe that the outcome in Mexico DF is more extreme than all placebo outcomes until multiple

years post-reform. Only in 2014 and 2015 is the difference more extreme in the true treated state than each

placebo iteration. Complete randomization inference similarly suggests that average treatment effects over

the whole reform period are less extreme than in the case of haemorrhage. Specifically, two-tailed tests

suggest a p-value of 0.19, or 0.087 in the case of one-tailed tests (Appendix Figure A9).

5.3 Maternal Mortality

Moving from maternal morbidity to maternal mortality, we observe a reduction by various orders of mag-

nitude in the frequency of events, in line with the oft-cited metaphor that maternal mortality is the tip of

the iceberg, to maternal morbidity’s base (see for example Firoz et al. (2013)). In general this makes it

31
 Figure 6: Inference: The Impact of Abortion Reform on Maternal Morbidity

Mexico D.F. Placebo Permutations Mexico D.F. Placebo Permutations

4
5

0 0

−2

−5 −4
2005 2010 2015 2005 2010 2015
Year Year

(a) Haemorrhage Early in Pregnancy (b) Abortion Morbidity

Notes: Inference for synthetic control estimates of the impact of the ILE reform on morbidity based on placebo permutations are
displayed. Each panel displays the difference between Mexico DF and its synthetic control (as a thick solid line), and 30 other
placebo permutations, where the remaining states are considered as treated in 2006, and their synthetic control is determined
based on an identical procedure as for Mexico DF. These are displayed as thin dashed lines.

considerably more difficult to estimate precise impacts on maternal mortality. Given this, and challenges

in forming an appropriate counterfactual state for Mexico DF,27 we focus here on DD and event study

estimates, and examine pre-trends in event studies to determine whether impacts appear to be driven by

previously existing differences.

In Table 5 we present DD estimates following equation 1 for both all maternal deaths (columns 1-4), and

only maternal deaths originating from abortive causes (columns 5-8). When focusing on the ILE reform,

we observe mixed evidence pointing in the direction of negative, though often imprecisely estimated,

point estimates. Both weighted and unweighted estimates suggest a significant reduction in all maternal

deaths following ILE (columns 1 and 2), of approximately 0.6 per 100,000 fertile aged women (versus a

mean value of 4 deaths per 100,000 women in Mexico). Note however, that when adding time-varying

controls in columns 3 and 4, these estimates are reduced by about one third, and become statistically

insignificant at typical levels. Similarly, in the case of abortion related maternal mortality, we observe

significant reductions when using weighted or unweighted simple DD models (with point estimates of bet-
27 In
particular, given wider year-to-year variation in rates of abortion in Mexico DF and potential donor states, the Mean
Squared Prediction Error in the pre-reform periods in the synthetic control estimate is quite large, and often extremely large
when undertaking placebo estimates.
32
 Table 5: Difference-in-Differences Estimates of Legal Reforms on Maternal Mortality

All Maternal Mortality Maternal Mortality due to Abortion

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8)
Post-ILE Reform (DF) -0.663** -0.669** -0.414 -0.658 -0.109** -0.074* -0.034 -0.038
(0.273) (0.317) (0.590) (0.585) (0.050) (0.044) (0.077) (0.071)
Post Regressive Law Change -0.502 -0.543 -0.478 -0.580 -0.090 -0.036 -0.081 -0.042
(0.340) (0.376) (0.335) (0.363) (0.057) (0.047) (0.053) (0.045)

33
Observations 512 512 512 512 512 512 512 512
Mean of Dependent Variable 4.028 4.028 4.028 4.028 0.276 0.276 0.276 0.276
State and Year FEs Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y
Population Weights Y Y Y Y
Time-Varying Controls Y Y Y Y
Notes: Each column displays a difference-in-differences regression of the impact of abortion reform on rates of maternal mortality.
Maternal mortality (all causes) and maternal mortality for abortive causes are each measured as total deaths per 100,000 fertile aged
women each year, and average levels in the full set of data are available at the foot of the table. All standard errors are clustered at the
level of the state.
ween -0.07 to -0.10 per 100,000 fertile aged women), though these become insignificant with the inclusion

of time-varying controls.

In the case of regressive reforms we find, across the board, relatively little evidence of any impacts of

these reforms on maternal mortality. We do consistently observe negative point estimates of a magnitude

approaching that observed in Mexico DF following the ILE reform, however regardless of specifications

estimated, we never observe a significant reduction in maternal mortality. We note however that, as dis-

cussed, standard errors are quite wide, thus precluding us from concluding that these estimates suggest

tightly estimated zero-impacts.

Figure 7: Event Studies for Rates of Maternal Mortality

3
3

2
2

1
1

0
0

−1
−1
−2

−2

−6 −5 −4 −3 −2 −1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 −8 −7 −6 −5 −4 −3 −2 −1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Time to Reform Time to Reform

Point Estimate 95% CI Point Estimate 95% CI

(a) Progressive Abortion Reform (ILE) (b) Regressive Abortion Laws (Legislative Tightening)

Notes: Event studies examine the impact of abortion reforms on maternal deaths (measured as deaths per 100,000 women of
fertile age). Additional notes related to the procedure are provided in Figure 3.

These wide confidence intervals can be observed in event studies presented in Figures 7 (for all maternal

mortality) and 8 (for maternal mortality due to abortion). Each event study includes full time-varying

controls, and is weighted by the population of fertile aged women. In the case of all mortality, pre-reform

point estimates in both progressive and regressive states consistently include zero, and with the exception

of 6 periods prior to the passage of reforms in DF are located within 0.1 death per 100,000 women of a

zero impact. In the post-reform period, we observe no significant impact in the case of the ILE reform, and

in the case of regressive reforms observe two coefficients various years post-reform (four and eight years

34
 .4
Figure 8: Event Studies for Rates of Maternal Mortality due to Abortion

.4
.2

.2
0

0
−.2

−.2
−.4

−.4
−6 −5 −4 −3 −2 −1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 −8 −7 −6 −5 −4 −3 −2 −1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Time to Reform Time to Reform

Point Estimate 95% CI Point Estimate 95% CI

(a) Progressive Abortion Reform (ILE) (b) Regressive Abortion Laws (Legislative Tightening)

Notes: Event studies examine the impact of abortion reforms on maternal deaths (measured as deaths per 100,000 women
of fertile age) where maternal deaths are classified as due to abortion (ICD codes O02-O08). Additional notes related to the
procedure are provided in Figure 3.

respectively) which point to a reduction in maternal deaths. While this may reflect some disincentive effect

flowing from increased sanctions on (illegal) abortion, we note that this is never observed to be significant

in mean estimates displayed in DD models.

In the case of maternal mortality due to abortion, once again we observe pre-reform impacts which are

not statistically distinguishable from zero. In Figure 8a we observe a divergence in rates of mortality in the

post-reform period following the passage of ILE. In the 8 post-reform years, each point estimate is negative,

and 6 of 8 are statistically significant at the 95% level. In general, these point estimates cluster around -0.2

deaths per 100,000 live births, which is close to the average level of maternal deaths due to abortion in all

of Mexico in the period under study (0.276 deaths per 100,000 fertile-aged women). For comparison, the

average level of maternal deaths due to abortion in Mexico DF only, and in the pre-reform period of 2001-

2006 is approximately 0.5 deaths per 100,000 fertile-aged women. Figure 8b plots the same event study

coefficients and standard errors for rates of maternal deaths due to abortion in states passing regressive

abortion reforms. In this case we observe relatively little evidence of a change in maternal deaths. While

once again we observe largely negative point estimates, only in one case (three years following passage)

does this point estimate significantly differ from zero.

35
5.4 Understanding impacts of abortions laws

Sensitive Populations Previous studies on abortion laws (see Table 1), suggest that these have a par-

ticularly strong effect among sensitive populations such as young and low SES women. We examine

heterogeneous effects of abortions laws by age groups. Similar to previous studies described above, we

find a particularly strong negative impact on teenage fertility (women aged 15-19) and on fertility among

the age groups of 20-24, 25-29 and 30-34 years. When expressed in percentage terms, we observe that rates

of birth among teenagers fall by 7.8%. We document DD estimates in Appendix Table A6, and synthetic

control estimates for each age group in Appendix Figure A10.

In line with this, we observe a larger drop in morbidity among younger women. Difference-in-difference

estimates suggest that the impacts of the reform on abortion morbidity is driven largely by women under

the age of 25, and in the case of haemorrhage, while transversal results are observed across age groups,

these are largest for those aged between 15 and 34. These results are observed both when considering DD

results (Appendix Table A6), as well as in synthetic control analyses (presented in Appendix Figures A11-

A12). Given the relatively small number of maternal deaths in quinquennial age groups and corresponding

lack of power, we do not estimate reform impacts on maternal mortality by age group.

De Jure versus De Facto Legal Reforms In general we find relatively little impact of regressive law

changes on resulting fertility, morbidity or mortality. One potential explanation of this is that the although

de jure changes were made to state constitutions, the de facto implementation of laws and penal codes was

unchanged. As we document in Appendix Table A7, in many cases, while constitutions were altered—

generally to declare that human life begins at conception—this did not always translate in concrete legal

changes in the criminal sanctions imposed on women or abortion providers. This has been similarly noted

in legal analyses of the reform (Singh et al., 2012b). And even in cases where criminal sanctions were

increased, it may be the case that state-level judiciaries do not alter the likelihood of imposing sanctions

on abortion.

We examine whether there is evidence of changes in the likelihood of being sentenced to prison for

undertaking an abortion, or in the length of prison sentences received, based on the passage of the abortion
36
 Table 6: Difference-in-Differences Estimates of Abortion Reforms on Judicial Outcomes

Number of Prison Sentences Length of Prison Sentences

(1) (2) (3) (4)
Post-ILE Reform (DF) -4.111*** -4.233*** 2.744 2.689
(0.245) (0.339) (2.386) (2.066)
Post-Regressive Law Change -0.673 -1.374** 4.148* 5.226**
(0.456) (0.569) (2.351) (2.426)

Observations 288 288 176 176

Mean of Dependent Variable 1.819 1.819 3.676 3.676
State and Year FEs Y Y Y Y
Population Weights Y Y
Difference-in-difference models illustrate how abortion reforms correlate with prison sentences handed down
by the judiciary, and the length of these prison sentences in years. Total number of sentences and the average
length of prison sentences are generated from administrative records captured in Mexico’s Judicial Statistics on
Penal Matters. This is the universe of judiciary decisions in the country based on the first legal judgement, and
so does not include any subsequent appeals. Analysis of the length of prison sentences presented in columns 3
and 4 is conditional on any prison sentences being handed down in each state and year. Prison sentence lengths
are calculated from a categorical variable capturing bins of between 6 months and two years, and in each case
we record the total years (or fractions of years) based on the midpoint of each bin. Bins are consistently used
in the period displayed here. All standard errors are clustered at the level of the state and calculated using a
wild bootstrap procedure.

laws examined in this paper. DD results following specification 1 are displayed in Table 6. Here we

examine the universe of all custodial sentences handed down by the Mexican judiciary. We observe, firstly,

that there is a sharp reduction in the number of prison sentences in Mexico DF following the reform (in line

with the legalisation of abortion), and no significant change in sentence length handed down in Mexico

DF.28 Importantly, we observe evidence of a dual impact in regressive states. We observe mixed evidence

pointing to a slight reduction in the number of prison sentences handed down, falling by 1.374 cases in

weighted regressions (compared with a mean number of sentences per state and year of 1.819). In the case

of the length of sentences, we observe a considerable increase, of between 4.1 and 5.3 years, depending on

the specification estimated. In the case of weighted estimates, we observe an average increase of 5.3 years

(95% confidence interval ranging from 0.5 to 10 years), which is significant, even at the lower end of the

95% confidence interval, when compared with the mean sentence length of 3.7 years. Thus, these results

28 Note that in Mexico DF, while abortion was legalised by the ILE reform, this was only the case for abortions realised
up to 12 weeks of gestation. Thus, in theory, custodial sentences can still be handed down for abortion when not meeting this
condition. In practice, a non-zero number of sentences was only observed in Mexico DF in 2011 (refer to Appendix Figure A3
for trends over time).
37
suggest that while the changes in law did not necessarily always prescribe a change in prison sentences,

there is a detectable increase in the length of prison sentences observed in administrative data, conditional

on being sentenced to prison. This increase in average sentence length is observed to hold in event study

analysis, with significant impacts observed from 1 year post-reform onwards (see Appendix Figure A13).

Leakage to the Private Health System One potential alternative explanation of the observed morbidity

results in all public hospitals is that rather than being driven entirely by the abortion reform, they may

reflect changes of usage of the health system, with a larger number of women opting to use the private

health care system. This explanation cannot explain the impact on fertility and maternal mortality, as these

outcomes are based on the complete records of births and deaths in the country. However, it could partially

explain the impacts observed on morbidity, as our administrative data records inpatient stays in the public

health system (refer to section 3 for additional discussion).

While we can’t consistently merge public and private health data at the most dissagregated level of mor-

bidity causes, we are able to consider all causes of abortion morbidity in the private health care system.29

In Appendix Figure A18 we plot rates of abortion related morbidity in the universe of private hospitals

(left-hand panel) and the universe of public hospitals (right-hand panel). These descriptive plots suggest

that if anything, results in the private system will only strengthen our estimates, as we observe a sharper

reduction in abortion related morbidity in private hospitals than we observe in public hospitals. In the case

of morbidity due to haemorrhage early in pregnancy, we are unable to observe this as a sole cause in the

private health records, but we are able to observe the class in which this cause falls (refer to Appendix

Table A2 which provides the description of how public and private records can be matched). Once again,

although we are unable to isolate only haemorrhage morbidity, we observe a considerably sharper reduc-

tion in morbidity following the reform in the private health system than we observe in the public health

system (refer to Appendix Figure A19). In general, these results suggest that focusing only on the public

health care system results in a lower bound estimate of the true reform impact on all maternal health.

29 Note that as documented in Appendix Table A2, this mapping captures all ICD-10 codes O00-O08, while typically abortion

morbidity is calculated from codes O02-O08. In Figure A18 we plot comparisons using precisely the same aggregated codes in
public and private hospitals.
38
Reform Spillovers As outlined in section 2.3, the ILE reform was not strictly limited to residents of

Mexico DF. Recent evidence from the United States documents a willingness to travel over a significant

distance to access abortion providers (Cunningham et al., 2017). In Appendix Table A8 we provide sum-

mary figures of the state of precedence of users of abortion services in Mexico DF based on administrative

data for 2007-2015. While the majority of users (72.5%) are women from Mexico DF, women residing all

throughout Mexico have access to ILE. The largest non-DF population comes from nearby Mexico State

(24.2%). In general, users of the ILE reform are clustered in states geographically close to Mexico DF.

A descriptive plot is presented in Appendix Figure A14. Residents in Mexico DF have by far the highest

rate of abortion, at 5.8 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15-49, followed by Mexico State (at 1 per 1,000),

and then two nearby states (Hidalgo and Morelos) with rates of 0.1 per 1,000. Remaining states have rates

which are an additional order of magnitude lower than this.

Despite geographic spillovers in access consistent with those documented in Cunningham et al. (2017),

we do not observe clear evidence of changes in birth or maternal health outcomes in nearby states. In Table

7, we present estimates comparing each of Mexico State, Morelos and Hidalgo (the three states with most

considerable abortion usage per population) to their synthetic control state. For comparison we present

synthetic control estimates from Mexico DF from Figure 2 (births) and Figure 5 (morbidity). In each

case, the synthetic control is chosen from among all remaining states (ie all states except for Mexico DF,

Mexico State, Morelos and Hidalgo). Along with estimates, p-values are presented, which quantify the

proportion of placebo iterations resulting in more extreme estimates than the difference between the state

in interest and its synthetic control. Here, placebos are all permutations of donor states and years. In each

of the three non-DF states where the largest proportion of abortions were performed, no significant impact

was observed on rates of birth, or maternal morbidity. Point estimates are both considerably smaller in

magnitude to those from Mexico DF (the largest is a reduction of 2 births per 1,000 women in the state

of Morelos), and p-values all suggest little evidence to reject null hypotheses of no spillover impacts of

reforms on these outcomes in this time period.

An alternative model which captures both the impacts of the reform in Mexico DF as well as any reform

spillovers to the rest of the country, replaces the ILE variable in equation 1 with the intensity of treatment

39
 Table 7: Synthetic Control Estimates and Inference on Spillover Effects

Births Abortion Morbidity Haemorrhage Morbidity

Estimate p-value Estimate p-value Estimate p-value
Main Synthetic Control Estimate
Mexico DF -6.877 [0.042] -1.399 [0.190] -0.906 [0.090]

Synthetic Control Estimate for Spillover States

Mexico State 0.673 [0.798] 0.333 [0.741] 0.559 [0.200]
Morelos -2.00 [0.515] 0.749 [0.781] 0.118 [0.470]
Hidalgo -0.197 [0.953] -0.679 [0.500] -0.264 [0.519]
Notes: Each point estimate refers to the average post-treatment difference between each state and
its synthetic control, and p-values are calculated using permutation inference described in section 4.
A full display of each synthetic control estimate and permutation inference is provided in Appendix
Figures A15 (Mexico States), A16 (Morelos) and A17 (Hidalgo).

in each state. This intensity measure is captured as the rate of abortion per 1,000 women (documented in

Appendix Table A8) in the post-reform period in each state. If outcomes per 1,000 women are regressed

on abortion usage per 1,000 women, this provides a back-of-the-envelope calculation of the elasticity of

outcomes with respect to the availability of a legal abortion. For example, if each additional legal abortion

results in 1 fewer births, we will estimate a coefficient of −1 in this model, suggesting full pass-through

of legalised abortion to birth rates. We estimate models of this type in Appendix Table A9. In general we

observe that, using the full data on abortions across Mexico resulting from the ILE reform, impacts per

abortion are considerable, suggesting nearly 1 fewer birth per every abortion provided, 0.16 fewer cases

of abortion related morbidity, and 0.14 fewer cases of morbidity due to haemorrhage.

Mechanisms: Availability, education, or behavior Along with the law change legalizing access to

abortion, the ILE reform included additional components relating to sexual education and disbursement

of additional contraceptives in clinics (refer to section 2.3 for a full discussion). In order to examine the

channels through which the reform affected fertility: whether it be only access, or a combination of access

with behavioral change, we turn to a dataset which allows us to observe (self-reported) behavior more

directly. We use the MxFLS data which follows women over time, and has survey rounds both before

and after the fertility reforms of interest. To examine the potential effect of the other aspects of the reform

(sexual education and alternative contraceptives), we estimate a version of equation 1, however at the level

40
of the individual, which allows for individual-specific fixed-effects given the panel nature of the MxFLS

data used.

We examine the effect of abortion reform on all available measures of contraceptive use (whether using

any contraceptive or using modern contraceptives), the number of reported sexual partners and whether

the respondent reports having knowledge of modern contraceptive methods. We present results of these

regressions in Appendix Table A10. In general, we find very little evidence to suggest that the results of the

abortion reform flow from an increase in other contraceptive knowledge in reform areas, or change in risky

sexual behavior as a result of the reform. We find quite close to zero effects for change in contraceptive

use and knowledge, and an insignificant reduction in the number of sexual partners reported. In all cases,

these results are insignificant at the 10% level. When we replicate these results using a repeated cross-

section of women rather than household fixed-effects in a panel setting (see Appendix Table ), we reach

similar conclusions that the ILE reform does not operate with alternative contraception or information

channels, suggesting that the ILE reform’s effect is largely due to the sharp increase in utilization of abortion

services. Similarly, we do not find that regressive changes in abortion laws cause women to seek additional

information or be more likely to use contraceptives, or change sexual behavior as proxied by the number

of sexual partners compared to areas which were not subject to a regressive reform.

6 Conclusion

In this paper we examine the impact of abortion law on women’s health. We consider a context in which

considerable heterogeneity in legislative reform is observed. In Mexico in the late 2000s both a substantial

loosening, and a series of tightenings of abortion policies were undertaken at the sub-national level. Using

comprehensive vital statistics data on maternal health outcomes, we observe that the appearance of safe

legal abortion available in the first trimester of pregnancy in Mexico DF resulted in a sharp drop in maternal

morbidity due to haemorrhage, and a slower decline in morbidity due to abortion, perhaps in line with the

gradual adoption of recommended abortion techniques by public health clinics. These declines were of

substantial importance, suggesting 8,600 fewer inpatient visits in the post-abortion years in Mexico DF. In

41
general, we observe quite weak effects of the tightening of de facto sanctions on abortion, even though, as

we show, these sanctions did lead to changes in the length of sentences handed down to women.

We document that the impact of Mexico DF’s ILE reform on fertility is in line with impacts estimated

in other settings, for example the US in the 1970s. Our estimates suggest that fertility declined by approx-

imately 5-6% in the years following the reform. We observe generally weak effects of regressive reforms

on fertility, though note that in the case of Mexico, these state-level reforms may have reduced fertility by

around 1-2%. Importantly, when examining the impacts of abortion reforms on rates of maternal death,

our estimates are considerably noisier than those for maternal morbidity. This is of importance given that

a range of papers examining the impact of abortion on women’s health limit analyses to maternal death,

given a paucity of high-quality health records. Our results suggest that this focus on “the tip of the iceberg”

may lead to less convincing results than when focusing on maternal morbidity. While focusing on surviv-

ing child birth should be an absolute minimum when designing public policies to protect maternal and

women’s health, maternal morbidity is of considerable importance when quantifying life-time well-being,

and avoiding a considerable health burden leading to chronic conditions.

The results of this paper are becoming relevant once again as a number of countries revisit abortion

legislation and attempt to make considerable changes in constitutions and penal codes. Among others,

legislative reforms have been undertaken or attempted in Ireland, Argentina and Chile in 2017-2018 fo-

cusing on legalising abortion in certain circumstance, and increasing restrictions have been enacted or

proposed in Poland and a number of US states. This paper documents that these policies are likely to have

a considerable impact on women’s health and well-being.

42
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Appendices

Appendix Figures and Tables

Table A1: Constitutional Changes Following Mexico DF’s ILE Reforms

State Reform Date Constitutional Article in

Decree Question
Baja California Dec 26, 2008 Decree 175 7
Chiapas Jan 20, 2009 Decree 139 178
Chihuahua Jun 21, 2008 Decree 231-08 143
Colima Nov 25, 2009 Decree 296 187
Durango May 31, 2009 Decree 273 350
Guanajuato May 26, 2009 Dictamen 836 158
Jalisco Jul 02, 2009 Decree 22361 228
Morelos Dec 11, 2008 Decree 1153 115
Nayarit Jun 06, 2009 Decree 50 335
Oaxaca Sep 11, 2009 Decree 1383 312
Puebla Jun 03, 2009 SPI-ISS-27-09∗ 136
Querétaro Sep 18, 2009 P. O. 68‡ 339
Quintana Roo May 15, 2009 Decree 158 92
San Luis Potosí Sep 02, 2009 Decree 833 128
Sonora Apr 06, 2009 Law 174 265
Tamaulipas Dec 23, 2009 Decree LX-1850 356
Yucatán Aug 07, 2009 Decree 219 389
Veracruz Nov 17, 2009 G. L. 155‡ 150
Notes: All states which formally altered their constitutions following Mexico
DF’s ILE reform are indicated above. Constitutional decree refers to the law
composed to alter the state constitution, and article in question refers to the article
altered in the constitution or penal code which was altered by the decree. Dates,
decrees and articles are collated by the authors from various state government
sources. The official document approving each decree and its associated date is
available in a zipped folder on the authors’ websites.
∗ Decrees or official newspapers for the State of Puebla could not be located by

the authors. The date and article in question is suggested by Gamboa Montejano
and Valdés Robledo (2014).
‡ P. O. refers to the official newspaper where laws are published in Querétaro, and

G. L. refers to the same newspaper in Veracruz. The law was published without
number (pp. 9857-9859) in P. O. 68 and in G. L. 155 (pp 2-5) in Querétaro and
Veracruz respectively.

1
 Figure A1: Proportion of births and abortion in MOH-DF clinics
.4
.3
Proportion
.2
.1
0

0
−1

−2

−2

−3

−3

−4

−4

−5
11

16

21

26

31

36

41

46
Mother’s Age

Proportion of Abortions Proportion of Births

Notes: Proportion of births by age are generated from administrative data provided by INEGI. Proportion of abortions by age
are compiled from summary data released by the Ministry of Health of Mexico DF.

2
 Figure A2: Geographical Distribution of State Law Changes (post August-2007)

3
Law Changes
None
Progressive
Regressive

Notes: The August 2007 ILE reform occurred in Mexico DF (yellow). Resulting (regressive) reforms in other states are indicated in red, with states highlighted in blue
indicating that no law change occurred between 2007 and 2016.
 Table A2: Maternal Morbidity in Mexico

ICD-10 Private Name Cases Percent

Code Code
O00 236 Ectopic pregnancy 187,315 0.534
O01 236 Hydatidiform mole 30,190 0.086
O02 236 Other abnormal products of conception 650,198 1.852
O03 234 Spontaneous abortion 335,081 0.954
O04 235 Medical abortion 7,268 0.021
O05 236 Other abortion 53,928 0.154
O06 236 Unspecified abortion 2,153,004 6.133
O07 236 Failed attempted abortion 996 0.003
O08 236 Complications following abortion and ectopic/molar preg- 12,047 0.034
nancy
O10 237 Complications due to Pre-Existing Hypertension 81,301 0.232
O11 237 Pre-existing hypertensive disorder with superimposed protein- 2,504 0.007
uria
O12 237 Gestational oedema and proteinuria without hypertension 967 0.003
O13 237 Gestational hypertension without significant proteinuria 592,387 1.687
O14 237 Severe pre-eclampsia 666,635 1.899
O15 237 Eclampsia 49,263 0.140
O16 237 Unspecified maternal hypertension 145,099 0.413
O20 242 Haemorrhage in early pregnancy 677,757 1.931
O21 242 Excessive vomiting in pregnancy 60,311 0.172
O22 242 Venous complications in pregnancy 7,322 0.021
O23 242 Infections of genitourinary tract in pregnancy 792,372 2.257
O24 242 Diabetes mellitus in pregnancy 252,069 0.718
O25 242 Malnutrition in pregnancy 956 0.003
O26 242 Maternal care for other conditions predominantly related to 86,511 0.246
pregnancy
O28 242 Abnormal findings on antenatal screening of mother 1,354 0.004
O29 242 Complications of anaesthesia during pregnancy 1,104 0.003
O30 239 Multiple gestation 116,853 0.333
O31 239 Complications specific to multiple gestation 4,178 0.012
O32 239 Maternal care for known or suspected malpresentation of fetus 377,630 1.076
O33 239 Maternal care for known or suspected disproportion 1,237,260 3.524
O34 239 Maternal care for known or suspected abnormality of pelvic 1,483,859 4.227
organs
O35 239 Maternal care for known or suspected fetal abnormality and 16,046 0.046
damage
O36 239 Maternal care for other known or suspected fetal problems 737,348 2.100
O40 239 Polyhydramnios 33,782 0.096
O41 239 Other disorders of amniotic fluid and membranes 694,761 1.979
O42 239 Premature rupture of membranes 1,079,039 3.074
O43 239 Placental disorders 12,270 0.035
O44 238 Placenta praevia 98,225 0.280

4
O45 238 Premature separation of placenta (abruptio placentae) 54,260 0.155
O46 238 Antepartum haemorrhage, not elsewhere classified 8,770 0.025
O47 239 False labour 1,214,865 3.461
O48 239 Prolonged pregnancy 85,304 0.243
O60 242 Preterm delivery 436,889 1.244
O61 242 Failed induction of labour 74,634 0.213
O62 242 Abnormalities of forces of labour 235,129 0.670
O63 242 Long labour 263,861 0.752
O64 240 Obstructed labour due to malposition and malpresentation of 255,257 0.727
fetus
O65 240 Obstructed labour due to maternal pelvic abnormality 478,134 1.362
O66 240 Other obstructed labour 134,555 0.383
O67 242 Labour and delivery complicated by intrapartum haemorrhage 9,832 0.028
O68 242 Labour and delivery complicated by fetal stress (distress) 761,623 2.169
O69 242 Labour and delivery complicated by umbilical cord complica- 133,400 0.380
tions
O70 242 Perineal laceration during delivery 82,045 0.234
O71 242 Other obstetric trauma 22,141 0.063
O72 241 Postpartum haemorrhage 91,844 0.262
O73 242 Retained placenta and membranes, without haemorrhage 51,166 0.146
O74 242 Complications of anaesthesia during labour and delivery 4,832 0.014
O75 242 Other complications of labour and delivery 167,982 0.478
O80 243 Single spontaneous delivery 14,383,652 40.972
O81 242 Single delivery by forceps and vacuum extractor 57,556 0.164
O82 242 Single delivery by caesarean section 2,465,467 7.023
O83 242 Other assisted single delivery 98,323 0.280
O84 242 Multiple delivery 46,596 0.133
O85 244 Puerperal sepsis 25,599 0.073
O86 244 Other puerperal infections 35,657 0.102
O87 244 Venous complications in the puerperium 2,418 0.007
O88 244 Obstetric embolism 1,147 0.003
O89 244 Complications of anaesthesia during the puerperium 8,855 0.025
O90 244 Complications of the puerperium, not elsewhere classified 76,866 0.219
O91 244 Infections of breast associated with childbirth 7,497 0.021
O92 244 Other disorders of breast and lactation associated with child- 791 0.002
birth
O94 244 Sequelae of complication of pregnancy, childbirth and the 1,809 0.005
puerperium
O95 244 Obstetric death of unspecified cause 38 0.000
O96 244 Death from obstetric cause >42 days but < 1 year after delivery 10 0.000
O97 244 Death from sequelae of direct obstetric causes 10 0.000
O98 244 Maternal infectious and parasitic diseases 97,048 0.276
O99 244 Other maternal diseases complicating pregnancy, birth and the 491,279 1.399
puerperium
TOTAL 35,106,332 100.000

5
 Number of Individuals Sentenced to Prison for Abortion
Figure A3: De Jure Sentencing of Abortion: Trends by State Type

Mexico D.F. Regressive Other Mexico D.F. Regressive Other

Average Prison Sentence Length for Sentences

50 8

40
6

30
4
20

2
10

0 0
2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011
Year Year

(a) Number of Individuals Sentenced to Prison (b) Average Length of Prison Sentences (Years)

Notes: Total number of sentences and the average length of prison sentences are generated from administrative records captured
in Mexico’s Judicial Statistics on Penal Matters. This is the universe of judiciary decisions in the country based on the first legal
judgement, and so does not include any subsequent appeals. Prison sentence lengths are calculated from a categorical variable
capturing bins of between 6 months and two years, and in each case we record the total years (or fractions of years) based on
the midpoint of each bin. Bins are consistently used in the period displayed here. Regressive states refer to any states tightening
abortion laws in the period under study.

Table A3: Summary Statistics, MxFLS data on women aged 15-44

(1) (2) (3) (4)

Mexico City Regressive States Rest of Mexico Full Country
Contraception knowledge 0.991 0.997 1.000 0.998
(0.094) (0.051) (0.011) (0.044)
Use modern method 0.676 0.589 0.578 0.590
(0.469) (0.492) (0.494) (0.492)
Use any method 0.686 0.638 0.617 0.632
(0.465) (0.481) (0.486) (0.482)
Age marriage 20.535 19.603 19.643 19.668
(3.891) (3.825) (3.827) (3.834)
Age first sex 18.807 18.957 18.998 18.965
(3.676) (3.593) (3.541) (3.577)
Number of sex partners 1.762 1.339 1.354 1.367
(1.545) (1.088) (1.037) (1.101)
Observations 187 5081 3526 8794
Notes: Data on household decision making and sexual behavior is obtained from the Mexican Family Life Survey (MxFLS),
which was conducted in 2002-2003, 2005-2006 and 2009-2012. The sample consits of women aged 15-44 who were
interviewed in all three rounds, and hence form the panel data sample. Panel A presents summary statistics from household
decision making module and Panel B from the reproductive health module. Mean values are displayed with standard
deviations in parentheses. Regressive states are those which ever had a regressive law change posterior to 2008.

6
 Figure A4: Raw Trends in Total Cases and Rates of Specific Maternal Morbidities

DF Other states Regressive DF Other states Regressive

35000 200000 12

Discharges per 1000 women

Discharges other states
11
Discharges DF

30000 150000
10

9
25000 100000
8

7
20000 50000
2005 2010 2015 2005 2010 2015
Year Year

(a) Abortion Morbidity (Total) (b) Abortion Morbidity (per 1000 women)

DF Other states Regressive DF Other states Regressive

6000 35000 2.5

Discharges per 1000 women
Discharges other states

5000 30000
Discharges DF

4000 25000

1.5
3000 20000

2000 15000 1
2005 2010 2015 2005 2010 2015
Year Year

(c) Haemorrhage Early in Pregnancy (Total) (d) Haemorrhage Early in Pregnancy (per 1000 women)

Notes: Figures present the total number of discharges due to abortion related morbidity (panels a and b), and haemorrhage early
in pregnancy (panels c and d). Left-hand panels document total cases, with the total number for Mexico DF plotted on the
left-hand y-axis, and the total number for all other states plotted on the right-hand y-axis. Right hand panels document the same
values per 1,000 women of fertile age. Each trend is based on data from the universe of discharge records from the public health
system.

7
 Figure A5: Longer Trends in Specific Morbidities using Secretary of Health Hospitals Only

DF Other states Regressive

11000 70000

Discharges other states

10000
60000
Discharges DF

9000
50000

8000
40000
7000

30000
6000
2000 2005 2010 2015
Year

(a) Abortion Morbidity (Total)

DF Other states Regressive

700 10000

Discharges other states

600 8000
Discharges DF

500 6000

400 4000

300 2000
2000 2005 2010 2015
Year

(b) Haemorrhage Early in Pregnancy (Total)

Notes: Figures present the total number of discharges due to abortion related morbidity (panel A), and haemorrhage early in
pregnancy (panel B). Each trend is based on data from hospitals administered from the Secretariat of Health only (available from
2000 onwards). Data in Figure 2 is based on the universe of the public health system, and also includes hospitals administered
by Social Security Institutes.
8
 Figure A6: Monthly Trends in Specific Morbidities using Secretary of Health Hospitals Only

DF Other states Regressive

1000 8000

Discharges other states

6000
Discharges DF

800

4000

600
2000

400 0
2000 2005 2010 2015
Year

(a) Abortion Morbidity (Total)

DF Other states Regressive

80 1000

800 Discharges other states

Discharges DF

60
600

400
40

200

20
0
2000 2005 2010 2015
Year

(b) Haemorrhage Early in Pregnancy (Total)

Notes: Plots replicate those in Appendix Figure A5, however now displaying monthly averages. Monthly averages can only be
plotted for data from hospitals administered by the Secretariat of Health. The dotted vertical line is plotted in April of 2007, the
date of passage of the abortion reform, and wide-scale rollout of available abortions.
9
 Table A4: Summary Statistics on Time-Varying Controls

Variable Obs. Mean Std. Dev. Min. Max.

Percent of State Living Below Poverty Line 512 46.81 14.58 17.58 83.85
Percent of State Residents with Access to Health Institutions 512 48.88 14.07 20.66 90.69
Average Schooling of Adult Population 512 8.43 0.99 5.71 11.05
Percent of Women of Working Age Economically Active 512 37.05 2.85 26.66 44.69
Average Salary of Full Time Workers 512 5037.28 1089.12 1957.12 8022.83
Proportion of Municipalities with Seguro Popular Coverage 512 0.78 0.38 0.00 1.00
Each observation is a state×year cell. Mexico is composed of 32 States. The number of observations represents 32 states and years 2001-
2016. State poverty is provided by the National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy (CONEVAL). The proportion
of residents with access to health institutions is provided by the Mexican Secretary of Health. Years of schooling are compiled from
the National Educational Information System (SNIP). The proportion of economically active women and average salaries by state are
calculated from the trimestral National Occupation and Employment Survey (ENOE) provided by INEGI. Seguro Popular coverage is
calculated from municipal rollout data, and records the proportion of each municipalities in the state having access. Prior to 2002 this
value is always 0, and after 2007 this value is always 1.

Figure A7: Complete Randomization Inference for Synthetic Control: Fertility Rates

.15

.1
Density

Density

.5
.05

0
−5 0 5 10 15
0
Null Distribution 0 5 10
Two sided p−value: 0.042. RMSPE−trimmed Two sided p−value: 0.009. Root Mean Squared Prediction Error
One sided p−value: 0.003. RMSPE−trimmed One sided p−value: 0.003.

(a) Null Distribution based on Randomization Inference (b) RMSPE from Placebo Synthetic Controls

Notes: Left-hand panel plots the null distribution of average synthetic control placebo estimates α̂∗ , and the actual estimate as
the vertical dashed line. The actual estimate in this case is α̂ = −6.877. Each placebo estimate is generated from a synthetic
control permutation where the placebo-treatment state is one of the 30 non-ILE states, and the treatment year is one of the years
from 2002-2012. Full permutations for each state and year combination are generated. The right-hand panel plots the RMSPE
associated with each synthetic control procedure. When considering trimmed p-values, we trim the sample at RMSPE<5 to
avoid cases where the synthetic control does not re-create pre-reform averages. Untrimmed p-values are based on the full set of
permutations.

10
 Table A5: Difference-in-Differences Estimates of Legal Reforms on Morbidity using Inpatient Days

Abortion Related Morbidity Haemorrhage Early in Pregnancy

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8)
Post-ILE Reform (DF) -1.513*** -1.356*** -0.878** -0.727 -1.916*** -1.935*** -1.230*** -1.730***
(0.364) (0.378) (0.377) (0.498) (0.220) (0.232) (0.203) (0.220)
Post Regressive Law Change -0.577 0.029 1.169 1.370 -0.327 -0.202 0.256 0.170
(0.495) (0.562) (0.834) (0.813) (0.343) (0.297) (0.294) (0.298)

Observations 384 384 384 384 384 384 384 384

Mean of Dependent Var 14.387 14.387 14.387 14.387 4.792 4.792 4.792 4.792
State and Year FEs Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y
Population Weights Y Y Y Y
Time Varying Controls Y Y Y Y
Notes: Specifications replicate those in Table 4, however now instead of estimating the impact of the reforms on the number of inpatient cases, we
estimate impacts on the total number of inpatient days corresponding to these cases. Additional notes are available in Table 4.

11
 Figure A8: Complete Randomization Inference for Synthetic Control: Haemorrhage Morbidity

1 6

.8

4
.6
Density

Density
.4

2
.2

0
−2 −1 0 1 2
0
Null Distribution 0 .2 .4 .6 .8
Two sided p−value: 0.090. RMSPE−trimmed Two sided p−value: 0.053. Root Mean Squared Prediction Error
One sided p−value: 0.060. RMSPE−trimmed One sided p−value: 0.042.

(a) Null Distribution based on Randomization Inference (b) RMSPE from Placebo Synthetic Controls

Notes: Left-hand panel plots the null distribution of average synthetic control placebo estimates α̂∗ , and the actual estimate as
the vertical dashed line. The actual estimate in this case is α̂ = −0.906. Each placebo estimate is generated from a synthetic
control permutation where the placebo-treatment state is one of the 30 non-ILE states, and the treatment year is one of the years
from 2005-2014. Full permutations for each state and year combination are generated. The right-hand panel plots the RMSPE
associated with each synthetic control procedure. When considering trimmed p-values, we trim the sample at RMSPE<0.4 to
avoid cases where the synthetic control does not re-create pre-reform averages. Untrimmed p-values are based on the full set of
permutations.

Figure A9: Complete Randomization Inference for Synthetic Control: Abortion Related Morbidity

2
.4

.3 1.5
Density

Density

.2
1

.1
.5

0
−4 −2 0 2 4
0
Null Distribution 0 1 2 3 4
Two sided p−value: 0.190. RMSPE−trimmed Two sided p−value: 0.163. Root Mean Squared Prediction Error
One sided p−value: 0.087. RMSPE−trimmed One sided p−value: 0.055.

(a) Null Distribution based on Randomization Inference (b) RMSPE from Placebo Synthetic Controls

Notes: Refer to notes to Appendix Figure A8. An identical procedure is followed, however now using abortion related morbidity
as the outcome instead of haemorrhage early in pregnancy. The actual estimate in this case is α̂ = −1.399. The RMSPE trimming
constant in this case is set at 2 when trimmed p-values are displayed.

12
 Table A6: Difference-in-Differences Estimates of Impact of Legal Reforms by Age

15-19 20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-44

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)
Panel A: Birth Rates
Post-ILE Reform (DF) -5.002*** -3.363* -5.813*** -9.567*** 1.055 3.179***
(1.132) (1.820) (1.407) (1.611) (1.442) (0.843)
Post-Regressive Law Change -1.418 -1.998 -0.774 -0.811 -1.191 -0.796
(2.033) (2.517) (2.059) (2.128) (2.048) (1.204)

Observations 512 512 512 512 512 512

Mean of Dependent Var 64.028 114.113 102.399 72.469 37.264 10.811

Panel B: Abortion Morbidity

Post-ILE Reform (DF) -1.083*** -0.408 0.331 -0.435 -0.149 -0.002
(0.337) (0.385) (0.251) (0.282) (0.241) (0.122)
Post-Regressive Law Change -0.465 -0.155 -0.168 -0.285 -0.140 -0.125
(0.391) (0.406) (0.358) (0.313) (0.244) (0.123)

Observations 512 512 512 512 512 512

Mean of Dependent Var 7.886 11.044 10.980 7.030 5.062 2.294

Panel C: Haemorrhage Morbidity

Post-ILE Reform (DF) -0.734*** -1.409*** -1.373*** -0.896*** -0.390*** -0.091***
(0.150) (0.263) (0.138) (0.169) (0.097) (0.025)
Post-Regressive Law Change -0.268* -0.495* -0.350 -0.309 -0.154 -0.053
(0.157) (0.287) (0.217) (0.189) (0.108) (0.032)

Observations 512 512 512 512 512 512

Mean of Dependent Var 1.297 2.480 3.151 1.853 0.992 0.266
Notes: Each panel displays DD models for a single outcome, with a separate model estimated for each age group listed in
column headers. In each case, full time-varying controls are included and population weights are used based on the population
of women of the relevant age group in each state. Each outcome is displayed as occurrences per 1,000 women of this age.
Additional notes regarding estimation details are provided in Tables 3 and 4.

13
 Figure A10: Synthetic Control Estimates of ILE’s Impact on Fertility by Age

Mexico D.F. Placebo Permutations Mexico D.F. Placebo Permutations

20
20

10
10

0 0

−10
−10

−20
−20
2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013
Year Year

(a) 15-19 Year-olds (b) 20-24 Year-olds

Mexico D.F. Placebo Permutations Mexico D.F. Placebo Permutations

20 20

10 10

0 0

−10 −10

−20 −20
2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013
Year Year

(c) 25-29 Year-olds (d) 30-34 Year-olds

Mexico D.F. Placebo Permutations Mexico D.F. Placebo Permutations

20 20

10 10

0 0

−10 −10

−20 −20
2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013
Year Year

(e) 35-39 Year-olds (f) 40-44 Year-olds

Notes: Synthetic control estimates and inference of the impact of the ILE reform on fertility rates by age groups. Each panel
replicates Figure 2b however only for the subgroup of women aged in the range noted in panel captions.
14
 Figure A11: Synthetic Control Estimates of ILE’s Impact on Haemorrhage Morbidity by Age

Mexico D.F. Placebo Permutations Mexico D.F. Placebo Permutations

6
4
4
2
2

0 0

−2 −2

−4
−4
−6
−6
2005 2010 2015 2005 2010 2015
Year Year

(a) 15-19 Year-olds (b) 20-24 Year-olds

Mexico D.F. Placebo Permutations Mexico D.F. Placebo Permutations

6 6

4 4

2 2

0 0

−2 −2

−4
−4

−6
−6
2005 2010 2015 2005 2010 2015
Year Year

(c) 25-29 Year-olds (d) 30-34 Year-olds

Mexico D.F. Placebo Permutations Mexico D.F. Placebo Permutations

6 6

4 4

2 2

0 0

−2 −2

−4 −4

−6 −6
2005 2010 2015 2005 2010 2015
Year Year

(e) 35-39 Year-olds (f) 40-44 Year-olds

Notes: Synthetic control estimates and inference of the impact of the ILE reform on rates of morbidity due to abortion by age
groups. Each panel replicates Figure 6a however only for the subgroup of women aged in the range noted in panel captions.
15
 Figure A12: Synthetic Control Estimates of ILE’s Impact on Abortion Morbidity by Age

Mexico D.F. Placebo Permutations Mexico D.F. Placebo Permutations

10 10

5 5

0 0

−5 −5

−10 −10
2005 2010 2015 2005 2010 2015
Year Year

(a) 15-19 Year-olds (b) 20-24 Year-olds

Mexico D.F. Placebo Permutations Mexico D.F. Placebo Permutations

10 10

5 5

0 0

−5 −5

−10 −10
2005 2010 2015 2005 2010 2015
Year Year

(c) 25-29 Year-olds (d) 30-34 Year-olds

Mexico D.F. Placebo Permutations Mexico D.F. Placebo Permutations

10 10

5 5

0 0

−5 −5

−10 −10
2005 2010 2015 2005 2010 2015
Year Year

(e) 35-39 Year-olds (f) 40-44 Year-olds

Notes: Synthetic control estimates and inference of the impact of the ILE reform on rates of morbidity due to abortion by age
groups. Each panel replicates Figure 6b however only for the subgroup of women aged in the range noted in panel captions.
16
 Table A7: Changes in Penal Codes Surrounding Abortion Laws

State Pre-Reform Sanction Post-Reform Sanction Additional Changes

Chiapas 1-3 years prison 1 to 3 years prison Added detail to the penal code, increased sentences
for “collaborators”
Chihuahua 3 months to 5 years prison 6 months to 3 years prison Added detail to the penal code, increased sentences
for “collaborators”
Colima 1-3 years prison and fine 1-3 years prison and fine No changes to penal code (only state constitution)
Durango 1-3 years prison 1-3 years prison and fine Increased sentences for “collaborators”
Guanajuato 6 months to 3 years prison and 6 months to 3 years prison and Increased sentences for “collaborators”
fine fine
Jalisco 4 months to 1 year prison 4 months to 1 year prison Added possibility of psychological treatment in com-
mutation of prison
Mexico DF 1-3 years prison 3-6 months prison or commu- Added possibility of community work in commutation

17
nity work of prison
Morelos 1-5 years prison 1-5 years prison and fine Added possibility of psychological treatment in com-
mutation of prison
Nayarit 1-3 years prison and fine 1-3 years prison and fine No changes to penal code (only state constitution)
Oaxaca 6 months to 2 years prison 6 months to 2 years prison No changes to penal code (only state constitution)
Queretaro 1-3 years prison 1-3 years prison No changes to penal code (only state constitution)
Quintana Roo 6 months to 2 years prison 6 months to 2 years prison No changes to penal code (only state constitution)
San Luís de Potosí 1-3 years prison and fine 1-3 years prison and fine Monetary amount of fine altered
Sonora 1-6 years prison and fine 1-6 years prison and fine No changes to penal code (only state constitution)
Tamaulipas 1-5 years prison 1-5 years prison Added possibility of psychological treatment in com-
mutation of prison
Yucatan 1-5 years prison 1-5 years prison Changed sanctions in certain specified circumstances
All details are collated from a side-by-side reading of penal codes prior to and posterior to the reform. In cases where no changes were made in the penal codes, this implies
that changes were only made in the State Constitutions, which were altered to recognise life as beginning at conception.
 Figure A13: De Jure Sentencing of Abortion: Event Studies for Regressive Law Changes

15

2
10

0
5
0

−2
−5

−4
−10
−6 −5 −4 −3 −2 −1 0 1 2 3 −6 −5 −4 −3 −2 −1 0 1 2 3
Time to Reform Time to Reform

Point Estimate 95% CI Point Estimate 95% CI

18
(a) Number of Individuals Sentenced to Prison (b) Average Length of Prison Sentence

Notes: Event studies document the evolution or criminal outcomes surrounding the passage of regressive abortion laws in Mexican States. Total number of sentences and
the average length of prison sentences are generated from administrative records captured in Mexico’s Judicial Statistics on Penal Matters. This is the universe of judiciary
decisions in the country based on the first legal judgement, and so does not include any subsequent appeals. Prison sentence lengths are calculated from a categorical variable
capturing bins of between 6 months and two years, and in each case we record the total years (or fractions of years) based on the midpoint of each bin. Bins are consistently
used in the period displayed here. In each case the 95% confidence intervals are shaded, and are based on wild-bootstrap clustered standard errors.
Table A8: State of Residence of Users of ILE: 2007-2015

State Number of Rate per

Patients 1,000 women
Aguascalientes 87 0.036
Baja California 40 0.006
Baja California Sur 19 0.014
Campeche 11 0.006
Chiapas 34 0.003
Chihuahua 31 0.004
Coahuila 28 0.005
Colima 19 0.014
Mexico D.F. 104,048 5.833
Durango 21 0.006
Guanajuato 268 0.023
Guerrero 161 0.025
Hidalgo 637 0.118
Jalisco 334 0.023
Mexico State 34,703 1.084
Michoacán 309 0.035
Morelos 464 0.128
Nayarit 27 0.012
Nuevo León 66 0.007
Oaxaca 230 0.031
Puebla 807 0.068
Querétaro 329 0.085
Quintana Roo 58 0.020
San Luis Potosí 108 0.021
Sinaloa 19 0.003
Sonora 28 0.005
Tabasco 32 0.007
Tamaulipas 30 0.004
Tlaxcala 188 0.078
Veracruz 267 0.018
Yucatán 18 0.005
Zacatecas 52 0.018
Non-Mexican Residents 52 —
Unknown 250 —
Total 143,550 0.628
Notes: The quantity of abortions are provided from administrative
data compiled as the Information System for Legal Interruption of
Pregnancy from Mexico City’s Secretary of Health, and are for the
years 2007-2015. Rates per women refer to the number of abortions
per 1,000 women aged 15-49.

19
 Figure A14: Geographic Variation in Usage of Mexico DF’s ILE Program to Access Abortion

Abortion Rate per 1,000

> 2.000
1.000−2.000
0.100−1.000
0.050−0.100
0.020−0.050
0.015−0.020
0.010−0.015
0.005−0.010
< 0.005

Notes: Each state is shaded according to the rate of abortions per 1,000 women provided under the auspices of the ILE reform.
All rates are calculated based on administrative records of state of residence. Refer to Table A8 for the precise number and rate
in each state.

Table A9: DD Estimates of the Impact of ILE Usage Intensity on Birth Rates and Health

Morbidity Mortality
Births Abortion Haemorrhage Maternal Abortive
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5)
Abortions per 1,000 Women -0.939*** -0.156** -0.142*** -0.001 -0.000
(0.225) (0.051) (0.026) (0.001) (0.000)
Post-Regressive Law Change -2.498 -0.246 -0.202 -0.006 -0.001
(1.377) (0.331) (0.118) (0.003) (0.000)

Observations 416 384 384 512 512

Mean of Dependent Variable 87.643 10.336 2.343 0.040 0.003
Notes: DD estimates replicate specification 1, however the ILE program is measured as the number of abortions
accessed per 1,000 women in each state in the post-reform period. Post-Regressive Law Change is measured as a
binary variable, so does not capture intensity, and is not interpreted in the same way as abortions per 1,000 women.
Each outcome is measured per 1,000 women in the state and year, and are identical to the outcomes in Tables 3, 4
and 5 in the paper. Each specification includes full time-varying controls, weights by state population, and standard
errors are clustered using a wild bootstrap. For additional details, refer to Notes to Table 3.

20
 Figure A15: Synthetic Control Estimates for Spillovers: Mexico State

.15
Mexico State Placebo Permutations

15

.1
10

Density
5
.05
0

−5
0
−5 0 5 10 15
−10
2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013 Null Distribution
Year Two sided p−value: 0.798. RMSPE−trimmed Two sided p−value: 0.790.
One sided p−value: 0.542. RMSPE−trimmed One sided p−value: 0.563.

(a) Birth Rates: Inference by State (b) Birth Rates: Inference by State and Time

Mexico State Placebo Permutations .4

4
.3

2
Density

.2
0

.1
−2

−4 0
−4 −2 0 2 4
2005 2010 2015 Null Distribution
Year Two sided p−value: 0.741. RMSPE−trimmed Two sided p−value: 0.734.
One sided p−value: 0.593. RMSPE−trimmed One sided p−value: 0.575.

(c) Abortion Morbidity: Inference by State (d) Abortion Morbidity: Inference by State and Time

1
Mexico State Placebo Permutations

.8
5

.6
Density

.4
0

.2

0
−2 −1 0 1 2
−5
2005 2010 2015 Null Distribution
Year Two sided p−value: 0.200. RMSPE−trimmed Two sided p−value: 0.161.
One sided p−value: 0.922. RMSPE−trimmed One sided p−value: 0.941.

(e) Haemorrhage Morbidity: Inference by State (f) Haemorrhage Morbidity: Inference by State, Time

Notes: Left-hand panels present plots of the difference between outcomes in Mexico State and similar differences between
placebo states and their synthetic controls. Right hand plots compare average post-treatment differences between Mexico State
and its synthetic control with a null distribution constructed permuting treatment over each donor state and time period. Panels
(a) and (b) are for birth rates, (c) and (d) for abortion morbidity, and (e) and (f) for haemorrhage morbidity.
21
 Figure A16: Synthetic Control Estimates for Spillovers: Morelos

.15
Morelos Placebo Permutations

15

.1
10

Density
5
.05
0

−5
0
−5 0 5 10 15
−10
2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013 Null Distribution
Year Two sided p−value: 0.515. RMSPE−trimmed Two sided p−value: 0.497.
One sided p−value: 0.219. RMSPE−trimmed One sided p−value: 0.227.

(a) Birth Rates: Inference by State (b) Birth Rates: Inference by State and Time

Morelos Placebo Permutations .4

4
.3

2
Density

.2
0

.1
−2

−4 0
−4 −2 0 2 4
2005 2010 2015 Null Distribution
Year Two sided p−value: 0.470. RMSPE−trimmed Two sided p−value: 0.452.
One sided p−value: 0.733. RMSPE−trimmed One sided p−value: 0.722.

(c) Abortion Morbidity: Inference by State (d) Abortion Morbidity: Inference by State and Time

1
Morelos Placebo Permutations

.8
5

.6
Density

.4
0

.2

0
−2 −1 0 1 2
−5
2005 2010 2015 Null Distribution
Year Two sided p−value: 0.781. RMSPE−trimmed Two sided p−value: 0.772.
One sided p−value: 0.678. RMSPE−trimmed One sided p−value: 0.689.

(e) Haemorrhage Morbidity: Inference by State (f) Haemorrhage Morbidity: Inference by State, Time

Notes: Refer to notes to Appendix Figure A15. All details are identical, however now results are displayed for the state of
Morelos.
22
 Figure A17: Synthetic Control Estimates for Spillovers: Hidalgo

.15
Hidalgo Placebo Permutations

15

.1
10

Density
5
.05
0

−5
0
−5 0 5 10 15
−10
2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013 Null Distribution
Year Two sided p−value: 0.953. RMSPE−trimmed Two sided p−value: 0.951.
One sided p−value: 0.421. RMSPE−trimmed One sided p−value: 0.437.

(a) Birth Rates: Inference by State (b) Birth Rates: Inference by State and Time

Hidalgo Placebo Permutations .4

4
.3

2
Density

.2
0

.1
−2

−4 0
−4 −2 0 2 4
2005 2010 2015 Null Distribution
Year Two sided p−value: 0.500. RMSPE−trimmed Two sided p−value: 0.483.
One sided p−value: 0.211. RMSPE−trimmed One sided p−value: 0.181.

(c) Abortion Morbidity: Inference by State (d) Abortion Morbidity: Inference by State and Time

1
Hidalgo Placebo Permutations

.8
5

.6
Density

.4
0

.2

0
−2 −1 0 1 2
−5
2005 2010 2015 Null Distribution
Year Two sided p−value: 0.519. RMSPE−trimmed Two sided p−value: 0.496.
One sided p−value: 0.319. RMSPE−trimmed One sided p−value: 0.311.

(e) Haemorrhage Morbidity: Inference by State (f) Haemorrhage Morbidity: Inference by State, Time

Notes: Refer to notes to Appendix Figure A15. All details are identical, however now results are displayed for the state of
Hidalgo.
23
 Figure A18: Trends in Public and Private Health System Morbidity: Abortion-Related

DF Other states Regressive DF Other states Regressive

7000 30000 200000

22000

6500
20000 28000
150000
6000
18000
26000
5500
16000
100000
5000 24000

Discharges for Abortion DF

Discharges for Abortion DF
14000

4500 12000 22000 50000

Discharges for Abortion Morbidity other states

Discharges for Abortion Morbidity other states

2005 2010 2015 2005 2010 2015

Year Year

24
(a) Quantity of Hospital Visits in the Private Sector (b) Quantity of Hospital Visits in the Public Sector

Notes: Left-hand panel plots all abortion morbidity according to the universe of private health records. Microdata on these records are available by request from INEGI.
Right-hand panel plots all abortion morbidity coded using the same codes as in private records based on the universe of public hospital records. A description of how these
codes are merged between the public and private system is available in Appendix Table A2.
 Figure A19: Trends in Public and Private Health System Morbidity: Other Maternal Causes (including Haemorrhage)

DF Other states Regressive DF Other states Regressive

60000 350000
13000 60000

50000 58000 300000

12000
56000
40000 250000
54000
11000
30000 200000
52000

Discharges for Haemorrhage/Other DF

Discharges for Haemorrhage/Other DF
10000 20000 50000 150000
2005 2010 2015 2005 2010 2015

Discharges for Haemorrhage/Other Morbidity other States

Discharges for Haemorrhage/Other Morbidity other States

Year Year

25
(a) Quantity of Hospital Visits in the Private Sector (b) Quantity of Hospital Visits in the Public Sector

Notes: Left-hand panel plots all “Other Maternal Causes” (including haemorrhage early in pregnancy) according to the universe of private health records. Microdata on these
records are available by request from INEGI. Right-hand panel plots all “Other Maternal Causes” coded using the same codes as in private records based on the universe of
public hospital records. A description of how these codes are merged between the public and private system is available in Appendix Table A2.
 Table A10: The Effect of the Abortion Reform on Reported Sexual Behaviour (Panel Specification)

(1) (2) (3) (4)

Modern Contracep Any Modern Num of
Knowledge Contraception Contraception Sex Partners
ILE Reform 0.002 -0.012 -0.013 -0.111
(0.276) (0.914) (0.901) (0.776)

Regressive Law Change -0.009 0.041 0.014 0.267

(0.304) (0.492) (0.814) (0.064)
Observations 10007 10007 10007 10007
R-Squared 0.889 0.568 0.558 0.531
Mean of Dependent Variable 0.999 0.569 0.610 1.418
Each column presents a seperate regression of a contraceptive or sexual behaviour variable on abortion reform mea-
sures, household fixed effects, year fixed effects and time-varying controls. p-values are presented below coefficients in
parentheses.

Table A11: The Effect of the Abortion Reform on Reported Sexual Behaviour (Repeated Cross-Section
Specification)

(1) (2) (3) (4)

Modern Contracep Any Modern Num of
Knowledge Contraception Contraception Sex Partners
ILE Reform -0.011 -0.050 -0.057 -0.111
(0.513) (0.579) (0.520) (0.675)

Regressive Law Change -0.002 0.093 0.065 0.150

(0.815) (0.008) (0.065) (0.106)
Observations 10007 10007 10007 10007
R-Squared 0.037 0.027 0.029 0.033
Mean of Dependent Variable 0.999 0.569 0.610 1.418
Each column presents a seperate regression of a contraceptive or sexual behaviour variable on abortion reform measures,
year fixed effects and time-varying controls. p-values are presented below coefficients in parentheses.

26