The Congressional Budget Office is drawing scorn from pro-life advocates after releasing a report claiming that late-term abortions save the nation money.
The agency typically “scores” bills Congress considers and issued a report on the bill that bans abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy.
Guy Benson of Town Hall reports on the dustup:
The Congressional Budget Office is tasked with “scoring” pending legislation based on the (sometimes cherry-picked) data they’re provided. I understand that. Nevertheless, producing an analysis of what amounts to an anti-infanticide bill based on the icy calculation of how much infanticide “saves” taxpayers is downright ghoulish. The objective of the law is to end a form of inhumane killing, not to clean up our balance sheets. And yet:
The CBO has also concluded that aborting babies at 20 weeks or later in pregnancy saves money for the government-run federal-state Medicaid system. The CBO made these determinations when doing its official “Cost Estimate” of a federal bill that would prohibit abortions at 20 weeks or later into pregnancy (except in cases of reported rape, incest against a minor or to save the life of the mother). “Based on data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), CBO estimates that, each year, about 11,000 abortions take place 20 weeks or more after fertilization,” said the CBO’s analysis of H.R. 1797, the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act … “For this estimate,” said CBO, “CBO assumes that around three-quarters of abortions that would occur 20 weeks or more after fertilization under current law would take place earlier, before the 20th week restriction is triggered, under the act.
As a result, we estimate that the increase in federal costs for Medicaid would total $225 million over the 2014-2023 period.” The CBO does not explain how it decided to assume that three quarters of women who otherwise would have aborted after 20 weeks would simply have an earlier abortion if late-term abortions were banned. However, CBO did explain why it believes late-term abortions save money for the welfare state. “Because the costs of about 40 percent of all births are paid for by the Medicaid program, CBO estimates that federal spending for Medicaid will rise to the extent that enacting H.R. 1797 results in additional births and deliveries relative to current law,” says CBO. “H.R. 1790 would result in increased spending for Medicaid,” says CBO. “Since a portion of Medicaid is paid for by state governments, CBO estimates that state spending on the program would increase by about $170 million over the 2014-2023 period.”
Congressman Marlin Stutzman is upset by the report and his staff contacted LifeNews to comment.
“The suggestion that the destruction of innocent life saves taxpayers money is sickening. While CBO’s shockingly callous view of human life might be shared by the enforcers of China’s one-child policy, such heartlessness has no place in the United States,” he said.
According to its June 27, 2013 report, CBO estimates that prohibiting late-term abortions would increase government spending, “primarily for Medicaid in order to cover the cost of additional births under the act.” The report can be found here.
