Dem
51
GOP
49
We often get questions about the impact of the Texas abortion law, the one that incentivizes Texans to tattle on folks who "aid and abet" an abortion. There have certainly been some suits filed, but it's not entirely clear how many, and there certainly hasn't been time for them to reach a final resolution. So, it's hard to answer questions about the legal impact of the Texas law.
What is considerably more possible to answer, at least at the moment, are questions about population effects. A team at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health decided to tackle that subject, and they have just released their preliminary findings. Using some fairly sophisticated data crunching, they estimate that between April and December 2022, there were 9,800 live births that would not have occurred but for changes in the state's abortion laws.
It could not be clearer that the Texas government bears responsibility for those children, having compelled their mothers to carry them to term. Consistent with that, then, the state government surely has a duty to make sure those children are properly cared for in terms of healthcare, nutritious food, postpartum medical care for the mothers, etc. Will the administration of Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) be stepping up its commitment to newborns, particularly those born to parents living under the poverty line? Shockingly, Abbott's office has had no comment thus far. In fairness, he's been very busy calling the legislature into special session, so they can eliminate all property taxes.
And as long as we are on the subject of abortion-related studies, there's also a new one from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). It confirms something that is surely obvious, namely that if low-income, uninsured women are given access to free birth control, the number of unplanned pregnancies and the number of abortions will drop. To put a finer point on it, NBER says that such an initiative would reduce undesired pregnancies by 5.3%, birth rates by 3.9%, and abortions by 8.3%. Further, because rubbers are way cheaper than rubber baby buggy bumpers, this would actually produce a savings of $1.43 billion for the federal government in terms of healthcare costs.
Inasmuch as the stated positions of the Republican Party include cutting government spending and reducing/eliminating abortion, we can only assume that Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) will be taking up a bill to implement NBER's recommendations with all due haste. Surely there's no reason not to do so, right? (Z)