Abortion Restrictions: Research Suggests Potential Economic and Household Effects of Recent State Changes

What GAO Found

Studies GAO reviewed showed that abortion restrictions can have negative economic effects for women seeking an abortion, as well as for women who are unable to obtain an abortion and instead carry their pregnancies to term. Studies also found laws restricting abortion access can have broader effects, for example, by influencing women's decisions about where to live, lowering educational attainment for certain sub-groups of women and men, and influencing birth and maternal mortality rates.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) collected some abortion data from states to document the number and characteristics of women obtaining abortions and the number of abortion-related deaths, but reporting was voluntary and not all states provided the agency with this information. In May 2025, agency officials said the future of this data collection is uncertain, given ongoing realignment efforts at the agency. The Social Security Administration (SSA) reported plans to incorporate changes to state abortion laws in its future analyses of the financial condition of the Social Security Trust Funds, but its analyses will be limited to any potential changes to fertility rates. SSA's ability to use federal data to inform this analysis depends on whether CDC continues to collect abortion data from states.

Why GAO Did This Study

In June 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion in its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization. Following the 2022 decision, several states have taken actions to protect or restrict access to abortion.

GAO was asked to examine what is known about the potential economic and household effects of state-level restrictions on abortion, as well as efforts of federal agencies to assess these effects. This report provides information on the potential economic effects of state-level abortion restrictions on individuals and households across different demographic groups and on aspects of the economy more broadly, as well as the role federal agencies play in collecting abortion-related data and assessing the economic effects of state restrictions.

GAO conducted an extensive, multi-step review of academic and government literature. To identify relevant studies, GAO searched multiple databases to compile research published within the last 7 years that focused on abortion restrictions and related outcomes. These searches yielded 611 studies whose abstracts GAO reviewed for relevance. We considered studies relevant if they (1) included original research or data analysis; (2) were U.S. focused; and (3) examined the effects of abortion restrictions on abortion rates; travel times and costs to obtain an abortion; socioeconomic outcomes such as educational attainment, financial distress or career trajectories; and population demographics including fertility rates, maternal morbidity and mortality. A subsequent review examined the remaining articles using a standardized list of questions on the study population, outcomes, and time frames. As a final step, GAO assessed the methodological quality of the studies to determine whether they were sufficiently rigorous, including data quality, research design, and analytic techniques, as well as a summary of major findings and conclusions. This process resulted in the 55 studies used in this report.

GAO also interviewed academic researchers and officials from national organizations with subject matter expertise and reviewed information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Social Security Administration. In addition, we analyzed abortion data from the Guttmacher Institute, which we determined were reliable for the purposes of describing changes in the number of abortions before and after the Dobbs decision.

For more information, contact Tom Costa at CostaT@gao.gov.