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Abortion Access and Risky Sex Among Teens: Parental Involvement Laws and Sexually Transmitted Diseases

Jonathan Klick
University of Pennsylvania Law School

Thomas Stratmann
George Mason University - Buchanan Center Political Economy; CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute for Economic Research)


October 3, 2005

FSU College of Law, Public Law Research Paper No. 175
1st Annual Conference on Empirical Legal Studies Paper
FSU College of Law, Law and Economics Paper No. 05-26

Abstract:     
Laws requiring minors to seek parental consent or to notify a parent prior to obtaining an abortion raise the cost of risky sex for teenagers. Assuming choices to engage in risky sex are made rationally, parental involvement laws should lead to less risky sex among teens, either because of a reduction of sexual activity altogether or because teens will be more fastidious in the use of birth control ex ante. Using gonorrhea rates among older women to control for unobserved heterogeneity across states, our results indicate that the enactment of parental involvement laws significantly reduces risky sexual activity among teenage girls. We estimate reductions in gonorrhea rates of 20 percent for Hispanics and 12 percent for whites. While we find a relatively small reduction in rates for black girls, it is not statistically significant. We speculate that the racial heterogeneity has to do with differences in family structure across races.

Keywords: Gonorrhea, Pregnancy, STD, Teenagers, Sex, Abortion, Illegitimacy, Birth Rates

JEL Classifications: I12, I18, J12, J13, K00, K32, Z13

Working Paper Series

Date posted: October 04, 2005 ; Last revised: October 07, 2009

Suggested Citation

Klick, Jonathan and Stratmann, Thomas, Abortion Access and Risky Sex Among Teens: Parental Involvement Laws and Sexually Transmitted Diseases (October 3, 2005). FSU College of Law, Public Law Research Paper No. 175; 1st Annual Conference on Empirical Legal Studies Paper; FSU College of Law, Law and Economics Paper No. 05-26. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=819304


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Contact Information

Jonathan Klick (Contact Author)
University of Pennsylvania Law School ( email )
3400 Chestnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6204
United States
2157463455 (Phone)
Thomas Stratmann
George Mason University - Buchanan Center Political Economy ( email )
4400 University Drive
Fairfax, VA 22030
United States
703-993-2330 (Phone)
CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute for Economic Research)
Poschinger Str. 5
DE-81679 Munich Germany
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