(LifeSiteNews) A recent report released by Republicans on the Joint Economic Committee (JEC) proved that, beyond immorality, abortion has a long-term negative impact on the country’s economy.
The report came about in response to the Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen’s continued commentary and declarations that abortion is necessary for a thriving economy.
“The tragic loss of over 600,000 innocent lives in 2019 cost the U.S. about $6.9 trillion,” Republican U.S. Sen. Steve Daines of Montana told LifeSiteNews in a statement. “Aside from the deep moral scars that abortion leaves, killing unborn children undoubtedly shrinks our workforce, weakens our economy and costs the U.S. trillions of dollars.”
In its opening remarks, the new report outlines the opposing claims from Yellen.
“Since the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, some economists have argued that unrestricted abortion provides economic benefits for women and the economy at large,” the report begins.
Most recently, during questioning at a Senate Banking Committee hearing, Yellen testified that restricting access to abortion “would have very damaging effects on the economy” by harming women’s labor market outcomes and increasing the odds they fall into poverty.
The Joint Economic Committee immediately countered this argument by listing its estimated cost of abortion.
“Applying standard valuation methods used by government agencies to assess the costs and benefits of policy actions that affect mortality risks, we estimate that the economic cost of abortion to unborn babies in the U.S. was $6.9 trillion in 2019, 32 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) that year,” the report states. “This cost is 425 times larger than the $16.2 billion loss in earnings that new mothers would be expected to incur over the first six years of the child’s life.”
The report begins by noting studies conducted before the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973. These studies examined the impact of abortion access in five states that had fewer rather than more restrictions.
