Safer sex? The effect of AIDS risk on birth rates.
J Health Econ
; 95: 102867, 2024 May.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38461677
ABSTRACT
Behavioral adjustments to mitigate increasing risk of STIs can increase or decrease the likelihood of pregnancy. This paper measures the effects of the arrival and spread of AIDS across U.S. cities in the 1980s and 1990s on births and abortions. I show that the AIDS epidemic increased the birth rate by 0.55 percent and the abortion rate by 1.77 percent. I find support for two underlying mechanisms to explain the increase in pregnancies. Some women opted into monogamous partnerships in response to the AIDS epidemic, with a corresponding increase in the marriage rate and improvement in infant health. Others switched from prescription contraceptive methods to condoms. These behavioral changes lowered the incidence of other sexually transmitted infections, but increased both planned and unplanned pregnancies.
Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Health context:
2_ODS3
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Birth Rate
/
Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome
/
Safe Sex
Limits:
Adolescent
/
Adult
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Pregnancy
Country/Region as subject:
America do norte
Language:
En
Journal:
J Health Econ
Year:
2024
Document type:
Article