Roe v. Wade was a landmark decision for the development of women’s rights. However, just after 49 years, the Supreme Court overturned the ruling on June 24th, triggering abortion restrictions and prohibitions across more than 20 states. Protests opposing the end of the constitutional right for abortion spread like wildfire in the US. As Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen alerted the reversal of Roe v. Wade “would set women back decades,” economically, there have already been consequences.
There is no doubt that abortion restrictions will reduce participation in the workforce and raise poverty. Decreasing job options for women harm not just the employees and their families but also businesses and the general economy since a lack of diversity and dynamism may result in the misallocation of talent. Misallocation of talent reduces the motivation of workers to be productive, forcing companies to increase unnecessary spending on R&D.
According to research by IWPR in 2020, the projected annual cost of abortion restrictions to state economies was $105 billion. Eliminating all state-level prohibitions would’ve improved the GDP by approximately 0.5%. This calculation was done prior to the abortion restrictions from the Supreme Court’s decision; thus, economists anticipate greater losses in 2022. There were already economic harms in states such as Texas, losing $14.6 billion in revenue even before the six-week abortion ban was approved.
Growing Economic Inequality
The most direct victims of abortion restrictions, economically, are undoubtedly women. Many are concerned about the growing inequality rooted in the workforces and economy like Stephanie Nadi Olsen, founder of We Are Rosie: “women cannot achieve equality at work if we force women to carry unwanted or dangerous pregnancies.” Abortion bans force desperate women with financial stress to turn to dangerous abortion options, jeopardizing their lives.
Despite the constant effort to eliminate economic inequality after the Equal Pay Act of 1963, women still earned 17% less than men do in 2020. Figure 1 displays the gradual increase of both male and female median earnings starting in 1963, but the wage gap never seems to close even after 60 years. Before the removal of Roe v. Wade, individual women between the ages 15 to 44 would’ve made $1,610 more in salary without abortion restrictions, and 505,000 more women would’ve been employed. However, the gap is expected to widen even more as thousands of women are denied an abortion. Women dismissed of abortion were found to have a lower credit score, records of bankruptcy, expulsion, and court judgment increased by 81% compared to women who were able to get an abortion.
Racial Targets
Although the abortion restrictions impact millions of women, there is a bigger concern for young low-income colored women. Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous women have limited access to health care which restricts their access to contraceptives and services that aid women in pregnancy planning. Mississippi, for example, has the worst maternal and infant mortality rates. The number of deaths is 51.9 per 100,000 live births for black women compared to 18.9 for white women. That is close to 3 times the number of black women.
Immediate costs of abortion include medical care and transportation to a hospital miles away or even states away. These expenses are hard for minorities and immigrants to cover because of their unstable salaries and the possibility of losing their job anytime. Even many stable jobs don’t offer maternity leave, making it even less likely for low-paying jobs. By the time they get to a hospital miles away or need time for recovery, their place is already replaced. As shown in figure 3, there is a substantial contrast in the percentage of white women being provided health coverage by their employer as compared to Black, Hispanic, or AIAN women. Being a colored low-income woman doesn’t make the situation any better because it takes two times the effort for a colored woman to get a job compared to their counterparts.
Unforeseen Pregnancy, Child Cost, and Poverty
Restrictions on abortion not only burden women to lose their jobs to travel miles to get the procedure and recover but also to pay unplanned child expenses, increasing poverty. Approximately 72% of women who didn’t have an abortion ended up impoverished, as opposed to the 55% of those who did. Also, long-term costs like job loss, unstable income, and limited education stunt women’s talents and potential as well as their children’s future.
Modestino, a professor at Northeastern University, shared, “We know that childcare costs, on average, $15,000 a year for an infant at this point, and that assumes that you can find childcare.” With COVID-19, the child care cost increased by 41% because of health and safety requirements. Pre-COVID, 10.8 million kids lived in poverty and the rate rose from 15.7% to 17.5% in 2020. Children and families fought for their lives to survive through inflation and the pandemic.
Restrictions on abortion put more children in poverty since most cases are unplanned pregnancies. In the first year since Roe v. Wade was reversed, it’s anticipated that as many as 75,000 women will have to give unwanted births because of abortion bans. This immediately reduces the chance for those children to receive proper education, lowering the number of kids with the potential to grow up to be leaders of great companies or scientists who discover vaccines to better society. Research conducted with difference-in-differences methods conveys how abortion restrictions increased the cases of child abuse which influenced those children to become delinquents. The economy will plummet without future visionary business leaders or politicians because the country will be unable to keep up with the fast-growing competition whether it’s commerce or innovative technology.
Anti-abortion supporters deny the negative economic impacts of abortion bans by arguing that economic gains shouldn’t come at the expense of morality. Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life, claimed, “We don’t kill human beings to solve problems.” Also, abortion opponents affirm that as more services and goods are required to accommodate a greater birth rate, it will enhance efforts to reinforce the social safety net, such as more childcare or public support to mothers. Therefore, it will promote more economic growth.
Ironically, abortion has been decreasing for the past 20 years, the reason not being abortion restrictions but abortion awareness and services. Many women are enraged by the Supreme Court’s decision because it’s now impossible for desperate low-income women who don’t have access to contraceptives or services to get an abortion.
References
https://www.vox.com/2022/6/29/23187002/black-women-abortion-access-roe
https://news.northeastern.edu/2022/06/27/roe-v-wade-economic-impact-women/
https://iwpr.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/B377_Abortion-Access-Fact-Sheet_final.pdf
