281-287 Lichter

to require abortion providers to notify parents of abortions performed on minors, to impose restrictions on Medicaid funding for abortion and to create 24-hour waiting periods. An unintended effect of such restrictions may be an accelerated growth in nonmarital births that, in turn, increases the proportion of unmarried women heading families. Our study addresses a straightforward question with important implications for public policy: Are new barriers to abortion access likely to contribute to increases in the proportion of women who head households in the United States? In this article, we estimate state and county fixed-effects models of the impact of geographic access to abortion providers, parental consent and notification requirements, and of Medicaid funding restrictions on recent changes in family headship rates among women.