PURPOSE: The aim of the study was to determine if men who report avoiding adolescent fatherhood through a partner's use of abortion have different socioeconomic outcomes than men who report a live birth during adolescence.
METHODS: We analyzed a subsample of men who reported a pregnancy before the age of 20 years that ended in either a live birth (n = 460) or abortion (n = 137) in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. We used propensity score and exact matching of baseline characteristics from Wave I of the study completed in 1994 to compare college completion and income reported in Wave IV of the study completed between 2007 and 2008.
RESULTS: Among men who reported a live birth, 5.8% reported graduating from college, and 32.4% had any post-high school education compared with 22.1%, and 58.5% of men who reported a pregnancy ended in abortion. In the multivariable matching analysis, men whose adolescent pregnancies ended in abortion had an increased probability of graduating from college (average treatment effect = 8.6; p <.01) and completing any post-high school education in the treatment group (average treatment effect of the treated = 16.5; p <.001) than men whose adolescent pregnancies ended in live birth. We found a positive association between abortion and personal income only compared to men who did not reside with their child born during adolescence.
CONCLUSION: Women's use of abortion services were associated with educational benefits for men who report teen pregnancies.