The Unwantedness Effect of Legalized Abortion

Before Roe v. Wade, there were five states that had legalized abortion in some way or form. New York, California, Washington, state, Alaska and Hawaii are not a representative set of states because they're all liberal. The mechanism was pretty simple: Unwanted children were more likely than average to engage in crime as they got older. An unwanted child who was never born would never have the opportunity to enter his criminal prime 15 or 20 years later.