Abortion, Adoption and Income: Panel Analyses of Income Outcomes as Relates to First Pregnancy Decisions

Abstract

Prevailing literature identifies adverse effects of bearing and raising children. However, there does not exist a hard consensus on the effects on mothers of aborting versus bearing a child. Neither does there exist much literature on the economic characteristics of those mothers who choose to give birth and put their children up for adoption. This paper seeks to establish a relationship between three exclusive decisions of mothers undergoing their first pregnancy (1. Terminating the pregnancy with abortion, 2. Giving birth and offering the child up for adoption and 3. Giving birth without offering the child up for adoption) and the incomes associated with these decisions. While no causal relationship is established, abortion is associated with increases in maternal earnings in the year of the abortion and in the years following; adoption is associated with increases in maternal earnings in the years following offering the child up for adoption; and simple live birth is associated with increases in earnings in the year of birth, but decreases in earnings for the years following birth.