This study develops an empirical model that measures the influence of state welfare, abortion and family planning policies on decisions concerning premarital pregnancy, abortion and single parenthood. Data are based on the fertility and marital experiences of white females from the three youngest cohorts of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, for 1979-1986. The results show that laws restricting contraceptive availability are associated with a higher risk of pregnancy. Restrictive policies on public funding of abortions reduce the likelihood of abortion, while greater availability of abortion services is associated with a higher likelihood that adolescents will obtain abortions. Finally, the estimates indicate that higher welfare benefits reduce the probability that pregnant adolescents will marry before bearing their children.

Abortion, Legal↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Adolescent fertility and the educational attainment of young women.

Analyses based on a sample of 2,795 women interviewed annually from 1979 through 1991 in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth show that early childbearing lowers the educational attainment of young women. After controls for an extensive set of personal and community characteristics are taken into account, having a child before age 20 significantly reduces schooling attained by almost three years among whites, blacks and Hispanics. Having a child before age 18 has a significant effect only among blacks, reducing years of schooling by 1.2 years.

Adolescent↗