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REPORT: Abortion Costs U.S. Economy $6.9 Trillion

June 16, 2022

Following recent testimony before a Senate Banking Committee where it was suggested that restrictions on abortion “would have very damaging effects on the economy,” Joint Economic Committee (JEC) Republicans released a study detailing the economic cost of abortion. 

The report, which uses the same standard methodologies used by federal government agencies to quantify the benefits of policies that affect mortality, notes that while “abortion at its core is a moral issue rather than an economic one […] even in economic terms, the costs of abortion vastly outweigh any claimed benefits.”

In an interview with Washington Watch’s Tony Perkins, Republican Leader Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX) added:

“The country and the states that have the workers are the ones who are going to win the economic future. I think if you were to take such a moral issue and try to put an economic spin on it, you would have to have to come to that conclusion. It is good for America to have more young people, more opportunities, more skills, more hopes and dreams.”

CLICK HERE to read the full report.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

  • The loss of unborn lives from abortion has an economic toll, in addition to a moral one. In 2019, with the loss of nearly 630,000 unborn lives, abortion cost the U.S. roughly $6.9 trillion, or 32 percent of GDP.
  • Abortion shrinks the labor force. “Since the Roe decision in 1973 an estimated 63 million abortions have occurred in the United States. If all of these aborted babies had been otherwise carried to term and survived until today, they would add nearly 20 percent to the current U.S. population, and nearly 45 million would be of working age (18 to 64).”
  • Abortion weakens the solvency of Social Security and Medicare. “Older Americans (age 65 and older) comprised a record high of 16.3 percent of the U.S. population as of 2020, and this share is expected to increase to 20.4 percent by 2040. This demographic shift will make it more difficult for the relatively smaller number of children to care for their elderly parents. It will also add more pressure to Social Security and Medicare, which are funded by the wages of Americans who are currently working.”