Economic effects of state abortion bans debated by U.S. Senate panel

Allie Phillips testifies before the U.S. Senate Budget Committee about her experiences with Tennessee’s abortion laws during a hearing on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024. (Screenshot from committee webcast)

WASHINGTON — U.S. senators heard detailed testimony Wednesday on the economic impacts women face and how those considerations can play into whether they seek elective abortion access.

The Senate Budget Committee also heard examples of the increased pressures women who need abortions for medical reasons have experienced after more than a dozen states severely restricted access to the procedure in the last two years.

Testimony came from medical professionals, economists and from Allie Phillips, a Tennessee woman who was forced to travel for an abortion after her fetus was diagnosed with several medical issues that threatened Phillips’ health.

“We want to have another child but we’re terrified because Tennessee still bans abortion and criminalizes doctors for providing essential healthcare for pregnant patients,” Phillips, now a Democratic candidate for a state legislative seat, testified.

Caitlin Myers, John G. McCullough professor of economics at Middlebury College in Vermont, told the panel that the “decision of whether and when to become a mother is the single largest economic decision many women will make in their lifetimes.”

“Men and women’s earnings trend pretty similarly right up until the point of parenthood,” Myers said. “When they become mothers, women’s earnings fall off a cliff, declining by about 30% and opening up a gender gap that persists even after the kids grow up and leave the home.”

Myers said that as a mother of four, the decision to become a parent was “entirely worth it for her,” though she said that doesn’t hold true for everyone for a variety of factors.

“But that’s the point — the trade-offs and decisions about whether and when to become a parent are inherently personal and closely tied to our economic lives,” Myers said. “And even the best laid plans of mice and men — and let’s add women — can commonly go awry.”

Dr. Leilah Zahedi-Spung, a board certified OB-GYN and a maternal fetal medicine specialist, told senators that she felt she had to leave Tennessee after that state instituted stringent restrictions on abortion. She now practices in Colorado.

Requiring pregnant people, including those with complex diagnoses, to stay pregnant is “exceptionally dangerous given the state of maternal morbidity and mortality in this country,” she testified.

“Studies have shown us that people who are denied an abortion are more likely to fall into poverty, increase their amount of debt and generally have worse financial security for years following their abortion denial,” Zahedi-Spung said.

“Inability to access abortion care has severe consequences and this is especially true for our Black, Indigenous and people of color who face systemic racism in all aspects of their lives,” Zahedi-Spung added.

Joy turns to heartbreak

Philips told senators that she and her husband were both excited to learn she was pregnant in the fall of 2022. But that turned to heartbreak when she learned when she was 19 weeks pregnant that her fetus had several health conditions, including to the heart and brain, that would lead Phillips’ health to deteriorate.

“Knowing I had a daughter to live for, we made the difficult decision to seek an abortion,” Philips said, referencing her 6-year-old daughter.

Tennessee’s abortion laws, Phillips testified, meant her doctor couldn’t offer her any advice or help finding a doctor out of state to perform the procedure. So she and her mother began searching for a doctor that could perform an abortion, eventually finding one in New York City.

She testified that she had to ask strangers for help affording the travel, turning to the online website Go Fund Me.

Once in New York, she had to deal with her loss alone, since due to threats against abortion clinics, only the patient is allowed to enter. Once inside, she learned there was no longer a heartbeat and the abortion would happen immediately.

“I went into surgery alone and I sat in recovery alone. I grieved her loss alone in a city I’ve never been in; far away from the comfort of my home, my family and my friends,” Phillips said while crying.

“No one should be treated this way — not in Tennessee and not in the other 13 states that now criminalize abortion, the standard of care that I needed in my situation,” Phillips added.

The state’s abortion laws, she said, are continuing to negatively affect her and her husband, who want to try for another child, but are fearful of what might happen during another pregnancy.

Improvements in safety net programs

Leslie Ford, adjunct fellow in the Center on Opportunity and Social Mobility at the conservative-leaning think tank American Enterprise Institute, told the Budget Committee that abortion is not a solution that “vulnerable women” should seek.

“Many women considering an abortion face significant challenges, but abortion is not the answer,” Ford testified. “We have a duty to focus on real solutions.”

Congress, she said, “should hesitate to make policy based on research that says abortion results in better outcomes for women.”

Instead, lawmakers should seek to overhaul safety net programs that provide food, housing and other forms of assistance to low-income women in order “to address many of the challenges women considering abortion face.”

“Despite good intentions the safety net often impedes the path back to self-sufficiency,” she testified, later adding those programs trap “people in poverty by discouraging both work and marriage.”

The government, however, “can’t do everything,” she said. Other services should be provided by fathers and community organizations.

“We can and must encourage these mothers to find the pathway back to self-sufficiency,” Ford testified.

Tamra Call, the executive director of Obria Medical Clinic in Ames, Iowa, told the committee that many of the women who enter the clinic say they’re considering an abortion due to economic circumstances and that staff there try to dissuade that by providing references to other services.

Obria clinics are defined as “faith-based, pro-life nonprofits” by the legal organization Alliance Defending Freedom, which is representing two Obria clinics in a case Thursday in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.

“Our mission is to provide reproductive health care and support women in a way which empowers them to make informed, life-affirming decisions,” Call said.

The clinic, she said, tries to help women get connected to places that can assist with education, job applications, food and housing.

Those programs include the Women Infants and Children, or WIC, program, Medicaid, family assistance planning in Iowa and child care planning resources.

“A woman should never feel that abortion is her only option,” Call said.

Whitehouse, Grassley comment

Rhode Island Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, chairman of the panel, said that reproductive rights “are intrinsically tied to economic opportunity.”

“Stripping women of this freedom casts a long shadow over their lives and over their families lives,” said Whitehouse, who has backed federal legislation to ensure access to abortion care across the country. “And it casts a long shadow over our economy as well.”

Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, ranking member on the committee and a longtime opponent of abortion, criticized the hearing for taking place at all, saying that abortion “is not an issue that lends itself at being looked at solely through an economic lens.”

Grassley later said that “yes, having and raising children has costs, but so does abortion on demand and the culture that lacks respect for life.”

Congress, he contended, should focus on increasing coordination between safety net programs that help families, including promoting work and education.

Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee said that the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision nearly two years ago to end the constitutional right to an abortion sent regulation of abortion back to lawmakers.

Since Congress hasn’t passed any laws that would affect access nationwide, Lee said, “states will handle this differently, but states handle many things differently.”

“Sometimes those laws can end up having unforeseen consequences, sometimes tragic ones,” Lee said. “Those laws can be changed from time to time.”

Virginia Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine said the results of some of the state laws restricting abortion access would be almost unimaginable had Congress not heard the testimony.

“The cruelty is astounding,” said Kaine.

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