Living in the American South and the Likelihood of Having a Tubal Sterilization

Abstract

This research uses a nationally representative sample of 7,643 American women from the public-and restricted-use National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG), Cycle 6 data files and logistic regressions to model for the first time the relationship between having a tubal sterilization and southern region of residence. This research finds a disparity in reproductive health for southern women; women living in the South face about 1.5 greater odds of being sterilized compared with women from other regions, all else being equal. When other potential main and moderating effects are included in the model, rural women are found to have twice greater odds as urban women and Protestant women have 1.5 times greater odds than Catholics of having a tubal sterilization, net of other effects.