In case we needed another reason to be frustrated with Jonathan Gruber, America's most infamous architect who insulted our intelligence, he also once argued that abortion has helped improve our nation's economy and social environment. At CNS News, Dustin Siggins explains how Gruber has gone from "being an academic, known mostly in policy circles, to the face of political dishonesty and manipulation." In a paper he helped write in May 1997 for the National Bureau of Economic Research, Gruber and two fellow writers suggested that abortion has helped save the nation money and social woes. Here is one of their must infuriating excerpts:
We find evidence of sizeable positive selection: the average living circumstances of cohorts of children born immediately after abortion became legalized improved substantially relative to preceding cohorts, and relative to places where the legal status of abortion was not changing. Our results suggest that the marginal children who were not born as a result of abortion legalization would have systematically been born into worse circumstances had the pregnancies not been terminated: they would have been 70% more likely to live in a single parent household, 40% more likely to live in poverty, 35% more likely to die during the first year of life, and 50% more likely to be in a household collecting welfare. The last of these finding implies that the selection effects operating through the legalization of abortion saved the government over $14 billion in welfare payments through the year 1994.
It is upsetting, to say the least, that someone who thought so highly of Roe V. Wade was helping to craft our national health care law. Perhaps it explains why Obamacare is filled with abortion subsidies and plans that indirectly fund the procedure.
Gruber isn't the only one with influence on Obamacare who once promoted abortion rights. Former HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius held a close political relationship with abortionist George Tiller, who faced criminal charges for performing illegal late-term abortions. Tiller was murdered in 2009 by an anti-abortion activist.
How many other government workers have hidden abortion agendas?
At least we can be comforted to know that a record number of pro-lifers are heading for Congress this January.
