economics of abortion

A detailed Summary of economics of abortion

Abortion has been an ongoing issue in the United States in recent history. There is a constant debate between pro-choice and pro-life issues. People for pro-choice argue that it should be up to the individual to decide whether or not an abortion is right for them. On the other hand, pro-life supporters argue that a fetus is a human being, and that abortion is murder. The debate has focused primarily on these two arguments, but little emphasis has been placed on the economic analysis of the story. In this article, I will discuss the individual costs and benefits of abortion, the social costs and benefits of abortion, and optimal government policies and regulations pertaining to abortion. From my economic analysis, I will conclude that the government should keep abortion legal to maximize social aggregate welfare, and provide funding for abortions for lower income individuals who cannot afford an abortion otherwise.

If an individual chooses to have an abortion, there are some costs that the individual will face. We can derive a simple function to represent the individual's costs of a legal abortion:

where P(time) is the monetary price of the abortion, whi

In order to minimize individual costs of abortion, to keep the high living standards of today, and to promote a higher overall economic wellbeing, the government should keep abortion legal and provide funding for those who cannot afford an abortion. Legal abortion means low costs for the individual due to lowered health risks. A lower birth rate due to legal abortion means higher labor force participation rate for women, which leads to greater tax revenue for the government, as well as a higher domestic output. Restrictions, such as parental consent and making abortion illegal after a certain period, should be imposed as they become necessary to maximize aggregate utility. Funding should be provided to lower income families for abortions, decreasing the amount of unwanted children, which can put a strain on the country's resources. Ignoring the debate between pro-choice and pro-life, aggregate social utility is maximized when abortion is legal, and funding is provided for individuals who cannot afford an abortion otherwise.

Similar to the decision for an individual, society should support abortion if the benefits outweigh the costs, or if:

ch is represented as a function of time (the further into the pregnancy, the more expensive it is to have the abortion), u is any medical expenses, such as medication or hospital stays, I is the individuals health costs (which include the possibility of death or internal damages as well as any psychological trauma), W is the wage lost in the labor force due to the operation and recovery time, and c is a parameter for personal feelings towards abortion. If an individual has a large moral objection to abortion, than their c parameter will be high, increasing the cost of the abortion. Likewise, the c value will be low if the person has few objections to abortion.

Again, the benefits that society sees are much different than that of the individual. A key benefit to society from abortions is that individuals are allowed to make their own decisions, the main argument of pro-choice advocates. If we assume that people are rational, than it is in their best interest to allow them to make decisions which are optimal for them. With abortion we also see less unwanted children. Unwanted children have a great social cost, especially those who are given up for adoption. Abortion also leads to a lower birth rate. If we assume that a higher birth rate leads to a lower women participation rate in the labor force (since women generally work less to help raise their child), then abortion increases the female participation rate in the work force. The increase in female labor force participation leads to higher domestic output, so the economy becomes better off because of abortion. Furthermore, a decrease in the birth rate leads to a decrease in taxes that are put towards child oriented programs, such as state funded education. We can write the benefits to society from abortion as:

where Ip is the insurance premium increase, T is the taxes paid for abortion funded programs, g%DS is the coefficient of social harm from promiscuous sex times the percent change in sexual activity, and b is the stigma attached from the knowledge that abortion is murder.

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Approximate Word count = 2826
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Politics