Does parental consent for birth control affect underage pregnancy rates? the case of Texas
Girma, S.; Paton, D.
Demography 50(6): 2105-2128
2013
ISSN/ISBN: 0070-3370 PMID: 23765262 DOI: 10.1007/s13524-013-0225-1Document Number: 579854
Previous work based on conjectural responses of minors predicted that the 2003 Texas requirement for parental consent for state-funded birth control to minors would lead to a large increase in underage pregnancies. We use state- and county-level data to test this prediction. The latter allow us to compare the impact of parental consent in counties with and without state-funded family planning clinics. We control for characteristics systematically correlated with the presence of state-funded clinics by combining difference-in-difference estimation with propensity score-weighted regressions. The evidence suggests that the parental consent mandate led to a large decrease in attendance at family planning clinics among teens but did not lead to an increase in underage pregnancies.
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