Estimating the Income Elasticity of Abortion: A Cross-National Study of 99 Countries

Background: The World Health Organization (WHO) listed comprehensive abortion care as a part of its essential health services¹. Despite this, access to timely, safe, and respectful abortion services is still lacking. Disparities may exist in the determinants for abortion and health services based on a woman’s location which may create inequality in accessing abortion and health services. Barriers to access to abortion services, subsequently, may also lead to unsafe abortion. Elasticity is a measure of a variable’s sensitivity to a change in another variable that is usually quantity demanded ². The higher the income elasticity, the more sensitive demand for a good is to income changes.

OBJECTIVES: The paper attempts to analyze the economic determinants of abortion by estimating the income elasticity of abortion, globally and by economic regions.

METHODS: We conducted a panel data analysis on data from 1990 to 2018 obtained from the World Bank, and Open Science Framework (OSF). Panel data methods were used to analyze the data.

RESULTS: The study estimates the elasticity of abortion to be positive and less than unity for low-income countries; and negative globally, in high-income countries and low-income countries.

CONCLUSIONS: Based on this study, abortion may be an inferior good globally, in HICs and MICs, and a necessity in LICs.. This understanding reveals reproductive health inequalities and the exact places where interventions are mostly needed.