Three-quarters of abortion patients are poor or low-income and cannot afford another child
The majority of patients seeking an abortion in the United States already have one or more children and are trying to provide those kids the best life they can. Three-quarters of abortion patients are poor or low-income , already living close to the edge. Sexuality is an innate instinct for survival of the species, and contraception is not entirely reliable, making abortion access critical to economic security. Existing federal and state restrictions on access to abortions already cost women in the U.S. $105 billion a year in lost wages.
Child poverty in the U.S. far higher than elsewhere To ban abortion is to condemn many more children and their families to poverty, and the rate of child poverty in the United States is much higher than in other countries. More than one in five American children are poor, as has been consistently the case in recent years, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. That figure is nearly double the rate in Britain, which has a very similar economic system and social problems. And it’s nearly six times as high as in Finland, where family supports are much stronger.
The price of poverty in childhood is high, in terms of children’s life outcomes, including their future educational level and wages; rates of mental health issues, unemployment, early childbearing, substance abuse, incarceration, committing and experiencing violence; as well as the probability of the kinds of “adverse childhood experiences” that predict future health issues. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control , reducing adverse childhood experiences by one-tenth would save $56 billion a year.
Raising children is expensive It costs a lot to raise a child in the United States. Lack of access to abortion can put a family that can’t afford a child on a downward spiral. In 2015, a typical family spent nearly $13,000 a year per child , for food, shelter and other necessities, or nearly $250,000 from birth through age 17. Adjusting for inflation, that would be nearly $300,000 in today’s dollars, and without that spending, children are going without.
Lots of patients seeking abortions find themselves in a no-win situation, unable to make enough money by working to afford child care, but standing to lose far more than the cost of child care in future earnings if they don’t work. Over a lifetime, staying out of the labor force for just one year will cost three to four times the salary a woman would have earned in that year , in lost wages, lower wage growth over time and retirement income.
Everyone benefits from a new generation, but parents pay the costs Historically, children were economic contributors to the household, a home-grown labor force that started young to help on the farm or in family businesses and was expected to care for their parents in old age. Now, instead of working, it’s important for children to get an education in order to earn a decent wage as adults.
With Social Security being paid for by taxes on younger generations, parents are raising the labor force that will support everyone in old age. People receive Social Security based on how much they’ve been paid over their lifetimes, not on how much time and resources they’ve put into raising children.
While the economic benefits of creating the next generation’s labor force are widely shared, the costs of raising children, in terms of both time and money, are concentrated on their families, and especially on mothers. Economist Nancy Folbre has noted that as children have become expensive, men have increasingly left childrearing to women. Now, one-quarter of U.S. mothers are raising children alone, without a spouse or cohabiting partner, as compared to just one in 14 fathers.
Apart from providing universal public K-12 education, the United States does very little to help families, and far less than most countries. Family benefits spending in the United States is less than two-thirds of 1% of its total economy, measured by Gross Domestic Product. By contrast, Britain and several other European countries spend five times that much on family benefits, in addition to providing national health care and a great deal more public housing.
Abortion and contraception are “the moral property of women” U.S. leaders should be ashamed of the number of children living in poverty in this wealthy nation, due to feeble family policies. They should also ensure that the decision of whether or not to bear a child is made by the people who best understand their situations, recognizing as the French have that abortion and contraception are “the moral property of women.”
Street Smart Economics is a periodic series written for Street Roots by professors emeriti in economics. Mary C. King is a Professor of Economics Emerita, Portland State University.
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