The diffusion of abortion facilities in the northeastern united states, 1970-1976

Despite increases in the number of nations permitting elective pregnancy termination, abortion facility location has not widely attracted the attention of scholars. This paper, however, explores the spatial bias of abortion facility location in the northeastern United States. Constructing and testing two sets of regression models with time of location and intensity of location, respectively, employed as the dependent variables it was found that several variables were important in abortion facility location in the study area, while several other variables were found not important. Among the variables having an affect upon location of pregnancy termination facilities were legislative action, population size, and proportion of females in the population. Variables having no influence were presence of opposition groups, and income level of an area. The diffusion pattern of northeastern United States abortion facilities was typical of a technological innovation in a developed region. Initial spread was contagious, followed by hierarchical according to the size of urban centers, followed by an infilling process whereby areas between the large centers began adopting the innovation.