Although abortion primarily affects women and their unborn children, it is undeniable that abortion also greatly impacts the overall community and society of the women who undergo the process of deliberately terminating a human pregnancy.
Although few studies have been conducted on how abortion affects society as a whole, we think it would be obvious that such a difficult experience would put strain on communities. If you are interested in learning how abortion effects women, men, siblings, marriages and relationships, or the aborted child specifically, you can visit those pages separately.
Included below are several statistics and findings that show just a hint of how abortion is psychologically, morally, and financially damaging to society, and has long term implications. Citations are listed at the bottom of the page. If you have questions about any of the information we have provided, please contact us.
To read about how abortion hurts society as a whole, click the links below or simply continue scrolling down this page.
Abortion Hurts Society Psychologically
Abortion distorts mother-child bonding which affects Millennial generational qualities of feeling lost, empty, or unable to achieve what previous generations had.³*
Relationship breakdowns caused by the abortion⁴ of a sibling may mean the father is not as present in surviving children's lives. This can have many psychological effects on young people.
*NOTE: Effects of an abortion-related lack in mother-child bonding on Generation Z and subsequent generations are not yet known.
Abortion Hurts Society Morally
Abortion affects sexual activity. Whereas previously the expected consequence of sexual activity–conception and birth–discouraged sexual behavior (particularly outside of marriage), the legalization of abortion removed the consequence of child-rearing and therefore increased sexual activity.⁵⁻⁷
Abortion also normalizes the killing of humans for convenience. The moral consequences of something as grave as this are far-reaching and permeate into nearly every aspect of American life. This morally devastating culture shift, which was caused or at least brought to the forefront of our society by the prevalence of abortion, is often referred to as the culture of death.
Abortion Hurts Society Financially
Loss of Valued Work Each Year Due to Legalized Abortion¹⁰
Falling birth rates, partially due to abortion, may have severe economic consequences, including issues with Social Security.⁸
We unequivocally oppose the idea that human value can be equated to financial resources. However, it is important to see the damage abortion inflicts our economy. Please view this data while keeping in mind that our firm view is that a person's value is utterly priceless and can never be put into dollars and cents.
Low population growth in high-income countries, like the United States, is likely to create social and economic problems.⁹
There is a significantly larger economic loss due to abortion than the less than $2 billion in public funds that some estimate abortion "saves."¹²
This only takes into account the people who were aborted, and does not consider the possibility of these aborted people having their own children, which could have had a further impact on the economy.
Abortion Hurts Society in the Long Term
Abortion affects the gender make-up of the global population. In countries such as India, China, Taiwan, Singapore, and countries in the western Balkans and the Caucasus, a rise in femicide via abortion means that in some parts of the world, up to 130 boys are born for every 100 girls. These numbers are vastly different from the natural balance between sexes (about 102 to 106 boys for every 100 girls), and will likely have far-reaching consequences in the future.¹³
Furthermore, abortion targets minority populations and has an impact on national demographics. A large percentage of abortion clinics are strategically located near minority communities in large cities, specifically targeting the most needy women with a process that can often pose risks to their health and well-being. According to the Guttmacher Institute, African-American women accounted for 27% of abortions despite African-Americans making up only 13% of the American population (according to the 2010 United States Census). A similar imbalance exists among other minority races and ethnicities, most notably among those of Hispanic or Latino ethnicity (accounting for 18% of abortions but comprise only 16% of the population).¹⁴⁻¹⁵
Abortion also targets those with physical and cognitive disabilities. Many women who receive poor prenatal diagnoses choose to abort. Abortion has created a genocide of the disabled. Most notably, those with a diagnosis of Trisomy-21 (Down syndrome) have been all but annihilated in Iceland.¹⁶
Percentage of the Population Aged 65+ in 2016¹⁷
(around 48 million people)
Percentage of the Population Aged 65+ in 2050¹⁸
(around 84 million people)
Declining birth rates,¹⁹
partially due to abortion, indicate we should expect a large growth in the percentage of the population that those aged 65+ make up (moving from 15% in 2016 to 20% of the population in 2050).
This shift in the age of our population may very well affect everything from retirement age to savings, Social Security, healthcare, housing for senior citizens, and other aspects of long-term planning for millions of Americans.
A declining birth rate also raises the question of labor shortages, the amount of people entering the workforce, and America's ability as a whole to provide for aging citizens with a dwindling percentage of young people.
Citations
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Oltmans-Ananat, E., Gruber, J., Levine, P. B., Staiger, D., “Abortion and Selection,” The Review of Economics and Statistics, vol. 91, no. 1, 2009, pp. 124-136.
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Levine, P. B., Sex and Consequences: Abortion, Public Policy, and the Economics of Fertility, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007.
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Levitt, S., Dubner, S., Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything, New York City: William Morrow, 2005.
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Greszler, Rachel, “Social Security: Declining Fertility Rate Threatens Finances,” The Daily Signal, The Daily Signal, 15 January 2014. Web.
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Peterson, E. Wesley F. “The Role of Population in Economic Growth.” SAGE Open, vol. 7, no. 4, 2017.
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Potrykus, H., Higgins, A., “Abortion: Decrease of the U.S. Population & Effects on Society," Marriage and Religion Research Institute, 2014.
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Potrykus, H., Higgins, A., “Abortion: Decrease of the U.S. Population."
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Gruber, J., Levine, P., Staiger, D., "Abortion Legalization and Child Living Circumstances: Who is the ‘Marginal Child?’”The Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. 114, no. 1, 1999, pp. 263–291.
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Higgins, Anna, “Sex-Selection Abortion: The Real War on Women,” Charlotte Lozier Institute, 13 Apr. 2016. Web.
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Wind, Rebecca, “Abortion Is a Common Experience for U.S. Women, Despite Dramatic Declines in Rates,” Guttmacher Institute, 22 Nov. 2017. Web.
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Public Information Office, “2010 Census Shows America's Diversity," US Census Bureau, 19 May 2016. Web.
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Quinones, J., and Lajka, A., “‘What Kind of Society Do You Want to Live in?": Inside the Country Where Down Syndrome Is Disappearing,” CBS News, 14 Aug. 2017. Web.
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The World Bank Group, “Population Ages 65 and above (Percent of Total),” The World Bank: Data, The World Bank Group, 2017.
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United States, Congress, U.S. Census Bureau, et al, “The Next Four Decades, The Older Population in the United States: 2010 to 2050," P25-1138, U.S. Department of Commerce, 2010.
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Greszler, Rachel, “Social Security: Declining Fertility Rate Threatens Finances,” The Daily Signal, The Daily Signal, 15 January 2014. Web.