Improved access to abortion, neonatal mortality, and gender bias: Evidence from Nepal.

There is evidence from the United States that the legalisation of abortion has led to a significant reduction in neonatal and infant mortality. However, no research to date has been able to disentangle between effects of improved access to abortion at the household- and cohort-levels; there is no evidence for developing countries; and existing studies of the impact of abortion legalisation on early life health in the United States are not unanimous.
Nepal initiated a drastic abortion reform in 2002. Moreover, because abortion facilities were made available to the public, the change in the law was not purely de jure. This research will collect data on local availability of abortion services, which opened at different times over a two-year period across the country. Combined with existing data sources, this information will allow estimating the effect of improved access to abortion more precisely, holding constant a number of potentially confounding factors. It will also compare neonatal mortality occurrence between siblings born before and those born after the opening of a nearby legal abortion centre, compare the effect on boys and girls, and estimate whether there is any evidence of improved access to abortion leading to sex-selective abortions.