Abortion and Social Security

Has abortion had an impact on Social Security? That is a question someone asked me recently in an e-mail. Apparently he believed that abortion did impact Social Security and made that point to a friend. His friend thought he was crazy for making such a statement.

I was surprised that his statement was considered controversial given that there are articles from think tanks with titles like “How Abortion Has Weakened Social Security.” Yet somehow lots of Americans believe that we can remove 50 million potential citizens from the population without any impact.

Consider the difference between two generations. The builder generation (those born before the end of World War II) in general had three or more children during their child-rearing days. Thus, the ratio between workers and Social Security recipients was high. By contrast, the boomer generation (born between 1946 and 1964) had fewer children. Some of that was due to lifestyle choice (using contraception to have fewer pregnancies), and some of that was due to abortion. Much of the decline in live births (and thus future taxpaying workers) is due to abortion.

Of course there are other ways in which abortion has impacted society. A research paper by the National Right to Life Committee documents this. First, fewer babies mean fewer consumers as well as less demand for goods and services. Second, abortion slows labor force growth. The Social Security Administration predicted a slowing of the growth rate in the U.S. economy. While it did not attribute it to legalized abortion, you can look at the graphs and come to your own conclusion about what those graphs might look like if there were more children and young adults in the world. Finally, abortion undermines technological innovation. The research paper reminds us that abortion denies us the talents and creativity of those unique human beings who were not born but instead were aborted.

Many people may deny that abortion has had any impact on Social Security, but the facts say otherwise. I’m Kerby Anderson, and that’s my point of view.