The Impact of Sex Education on Sexual Activity, Pregnancy, and Abortion

TL;DR

This study investigates how sex education relates to abortion rates in the US, finding significant associations with premarital sex, frequency of sex, and rape-related pregnancy, while age, children, and social standing are not causally linked.

Contribution

It provides new evidence on the relation between sex education and abortion, highlighting specific behavioral factors that influence abortion odds.

Findings

Higher odds of abortion with premarital sex

Increased frequency of sex correlates with higher abortion odds

Rape-related pregnancies significantly increase abortion likelihood

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to find a relation between sex education and abortion in the United States. Accordingly, multivariate logistic regression is employed to study the relation between abortion and frequency of sex, pre-marriage sex, and pregnancy by rape. The finding shows the odds of abortion among those who have had premarital sex, more frequent sex before marriage, and been the victim of rape is higher than those who have not experienced any of these incidents. The output identified with one unit increase in pre-marriage sex the log-odds of abortion increases by 0.47. Similarly, it shows by one unit increase in the frequency of sex, the log-odds of abortion increases by 0.39. Also, for every additional pregnancy by rape, there is an expectation of a 3.17 increase in the log-odds of abortion. The findings of this study also suggests abortion is associated with sex education. Despite previous findings, this study shows the factors of age, having children, and social standing is not considered a burden to parents and thereby do not have a causal relation to abortion.