Department of Labor Studies and Employment Relations, Rutgers University, Piscataway, New Jersey, United States of America.
Department of Women's and Gender Studies, Rutgers University, Piscataway, New Jersey, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2021 May 6;16(5):e0250692. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0250692. eCollection 2021.
Although abortion is a common gynecological procedure around the globe, we lack synthesis of the known macroeconomic costs and outcomes of abortion care and abortion policies. This scoping review synthesizes the literature on the impact of abortion-related care and abortion policies on economic outcomes at the macroeconomic level (that is, for societies and nation states).
Searches were conducted in eight electronic databases. We conducted the searches and application of inclusion/exclusion criteria using the PRISMA extension for Scoping Reviews. For inclusion, studies must have examined one of the following macroeconomic outcomes: costs, impacts, benefits, and/or value of abortion care or abortion policies. Quantitative and qualitative data were extracted for descriptive statistics and thematic analysis. Of the 189 data extractions with macroeconomic evidence, costs at the national level are the most frequently reported economic outcome (n = 97), followed by impacts (n = 66), and benefits/value (n = 26). Findings show that post-abortion care services can constitute a substantial portion of national expenditures on health. Public sector coverage of abortion costs is sparse, and individuals bear most of the costs. Evidence also indicates that liberalizing abortion laws can have positive spillover effects for women's educational attainment and labor supply, and that access to abortion services contributes to improvements in children's human capital. However, the political economy around abortion legislation remains complicated and controversial.
Given the highly charged political nature of abortion around the global and the preponderance of rhetoric that can cloud reality in policy dialogues, it is imperative that social science researchers build the evidence base on the macroeconomic outcomes of abortion services and regulations.
尽管堕胎在全球范围内是一种常见的妇科手术，但我们缺乏对堕胎护理和堕胎政策的已知宏观经济成本和结果的综合分析。本范围综述综合了与堕胎相关的护理和堕胎政策对宏观经济层面（即对社会和国家）经济结果的影响的文献。
在八个电子数据库中进行了检索。我们使用 PRISMA 扩展对范围综述进行了检索和纳入/排除标准的应用。纳入标准为，研究必须检查以下宏观经济结果之一：堕胎护理或堕胎政策的成本、影响、效益和/或价值。对定量和定性数据进行了提取，用于描述性统计和主题分析。在具有宏观经济证据的 189 项数据提取中，国家层面的成本是最常报告的经济结果（n=97），其次是影响（n=66），以及效益/价值（n=26）。研究结果表明，堕胎后护理服务可能构成国家卫生支出的重要部分。公共部门对堕胎费用的覆盖范围很少，个人承担了大部分费用。证据还表明，放宽堕胎法可以对妇女的教育程度和劳动力供应产生积极的溢出效应，并且获得堕胎服务有助于改善儿童的人力资本。然而，堕胎立法的政治经济学仍然很复杂，存在争议。
鉴于全球范围内堕胎的政治性质高度紧张，以及政策对话中可能使现实变得模糊的言论占主导地位，社会科学研究人员必须建立关于堕胎服务和法规的宏观经济结果的证据基础。
