Citation
Bauman, Karl E.; Anderson, Ann E.; Freeman, Jean L.; & Koch, Gary G. (1977). Legal Abortions and Trends in Age-Specific Marriage Rates. American Journal of Public Health, 67(1), 52-53. PMCID: PMC1653593Abstract
Of the many studies which consider correlates of legal abortion in the United States, only one explores directly the relationship between abortion and trend in marriage rates. That research was stimulated by the observations that most legal abortions are performed for the unmarried and legalabortion is associated with fewer legitimate and illegitimate births which were first births of young mothers. From this it was reasoned liberalized abortion policies might be providing a new alternative to marriage forced by premarital pregnancy, and thereby be related to a decline in marriage rates. The findings supported that notion: trends in crude marriage rates for states with many and few legal abortions were similar before 1969, when there were few legal abortions in the U.S., but after that states with many legal abortions began exhibiting declines in crude marriage rates that were not experienced by states with relatively few legal abortions
URL
http://dx.doi.org/10.2105/ajph.67.1.52Reference Type
Journal ArticleYear Published
1977Journal Title
American Journal of Public HealthAuthor(s)
Bauman, Karl E.Anderson, Ann E.
Freeman, Jean L.
Koch, Gary G.