Since Roe v. Wade became the law of the land in 1973, estimates range from 48 million to 52 million abortions have been performed. Most of these figures are provided by the Guttmacher Institute, whose founder Alan Guttmacher was the former President of Planned Parenthood, Inc. Even Guttmacher estimates that 3% to 6% of abortions are not counted or reported so the true number is potentially higher. Additionally, some states such as Alaska, California, New Hampshire, Oklahoma and West Virginia do not provide data for the purpose of federal reporting. Accordingly the number could conceivably be as high as 60 million or more.
Recently I did some number crunching and was alarmed at what I believe to be conservative estimates. In arriving at my calculations I relied on government provided data and made only a few assumptions:
- Of all babies aborted since 1973 I allowed 20 years to begin working,
- Not everyone will become a productive member of society for many reasons so I reduced all my projections by 20%,
- If someone aborted in 1973 had the opportunity to begin working in 1993 they would have worked 16 years; born in 1974, worked 15 years and so on,
- U.S. Treasury data on median individual income was used.
Now I'm neither a mathematician nor an economist, but I am very efficient with research and extremely proficient with spreadsheets. Therefore my challenge to anyone reading this blog is if you don't agree, or if you have better or more accurate data please prove me wrong!
Again, keep in mind that the intent of this post is not to come down on either side of the issue. In the past I've frequently posed the question as to where Social Security would be without that lost revenue. Now that I have a better grasp on the financial impact I'll be writing on similar topics.
Next: Should abortion even be a part of the pending health care debate?
