In June of 2022, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization to eliminate the constitutional right to abortion, overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade decision and granting authority to regulate abortions to individual state legislatures. Abortion policy at the state level can take many different forms, including bans on the basis of gestational period, reason, and method, exceptions to those bans, and requirements to qualify for the exceptions. Although the full scope of consequences the court’s decision will have is yet to be experienced, certain patterns or correlations in natality data can be observed as early as 9 months post-Dobbs. This study examines the relationship between the relative severity of abortion restriction in 2022, abortion rates in 2022, and natality patterns in 2023 pertaining to birth order and age of mother.
