The Impact of Legalized Abortion on Crime over the Last Two Decades

This paper extends the authors' earlier work (Donohue and Levitt, 2001) by examining the impact of legalized abortion on crime rates over the last two decades.

The authors find strong support for their earlier prediction that legalized abortion would lead to persistent declines in crime rates.

They estimate that overall crime fell by 17.

5% from 1998 to 2014 due to legalized abortion, with violent crime reduced by 47% and property crime by 33% over this period.

The study suggests that legalized abortion can explain a significant portion of the observed decline in crime rates in the United States.