They may not have voted last November….
But if a study is right?
People ARE voting with their feet….
Moving out of states that are hostile to a woman’s ‘Right’ to choose what she wants with her body….
And THAT could begin to cost state’s population, attractiveness and?
Yes…
State JOBS, INCOME and REVENUE…..
It wasn’t a stretch to predict that the strict abortion bans in states such as Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Arkansas would have demographic effects — driving residents out of those states and reducing migration from abortion-protective states.
New research has validated that prediction and put meat on its bones. Most notably, economists at Georgia Tech reported in a paper published this month that by mid-2023, the 13 states with total bans had suffered a combined net loss of an estimated 36,000 residents per quarter, or more than 144,000 per year.
Over two years, that amounts to a net loss of more than one-third of a percent of the combined population of about 80 million in the 13 states with abortion bans.
State abortion policies alter the relative attractiveness of locations and the geographic distribution of human capital.
— Dench et al
Over time, the trend could result in a population 1% lower than it would have been if the abortion bans weren’t in place. That should be enough to catch the attention of lawmakers in those states because of its potential to negate programs aimed at luring workers and families.
“It should concern them in terms of the population that will be available to work in their states over time,” Georgia Tech economist Daniel L. Dench, a co-author of the paper, told me.
…
That suggests “an outsized influence of reproductive rights on younger, more mobile populations,” they wrote — possibly because the logistics of moving a family are more burdensome than for single persons, and also that single people may be more likely to be women of childbearing age.
“State abortion policies alter the relative attractiveness of locations and the geographic distribution of human capital,” the paper concludes.
The new study contributes valuable grist for the continuing debate over the social and economic impacts of abortion restrictions…
…
The implications for state policymakers should be plain — if they don’t allow antiabortion ideology to outweigh social and economic realities. Among other factors, well-educated and socially aware people are likely to be more attentive to reproductive healthcare rights.
“Who is being deterred from living in states with restricted abortion access?” the authors ask. “The fact that highly educated individuals tend to be more mobile and more supportive of abortion access,” they write, has “important implications for state economies.”….
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.