United States Secretary Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that if the Supreme Court overturns the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, it would have a very damaging effect on the economy and women.
The official made the warning to members of Congress on Tuesday after a leaked final draft of the opinion to overturn the decision. At a Senate Banking Committee hearing regarding a financial report on the U.S. economy, Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey asked what reversing the ruling would result in relation to the economy of the nation.
Janet Yellen on Overturning Roe v. Wade
Answering the question, Yellen said, "I believe that eliminating the right of women to make decisions about when and whether to have children would have very damaging effects on the economy and would set women back decades." The official is famous for being the first woman to serve as treasury secretary.
The Roe v. Wade decision, along with access to reproductive health care services, including abortion, has helped lead to increased participation in the labor force, said Yellen. She argued that they allowed many women to finish their studies, increasing their earning potential, as per NBC News.
The treasury secretary said that many research studies have found that denying women access to abortions will only serve to increase their odds of living in poverty or need public assistance. Furthermore, Menendez said that current abortion restrictions at the state level cost the U.S. roughly $105 billion every year, citing the Institute for Women's Policy Research's data.
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Yellen also said that having access to abortion allows women to plan "fulfilling and satisfying" lives on top of improving the well-being of children. Her comments come one week after the draft of a Supreme Court decision on Mississippi's strict abortion law was published.
According to CNBC, Justice Samuel Alito wrote in the 98-page draft decision that they hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled. Later, Supreme Court Justice John Roberts confirmed the authenticity of the leaked draft.
Effects of the Decision
If the draft is adopted before the court's term ends in roughly two months, state authorities would be to restrict when and how people have abortions with the federal court needing to be involved. The National Bureau of Economic Research published a study that found women who were denied an abortion experienced "a large increase in financial distress that is sustained for several years."
The data showed that it includes a substantial increase in the rate of evictions, bankruptcies, and other negative financial events. While these types of research focus on women, it was also important to note that transgender men, gender non-conforming people, and others, get abortions too.
The situation comes as conservatives are praising Sen. Tim Scott over his exchange with Yellen in the Tuesday hearing where the former disagreed with the latter's justification of abortion for "low income" Black women.
Scott pushed back against the treasury secretary's comments that low-income, African American mothers benefit from abortion. He interjected while Yelle was speaking and cited his own experience growing up poor and Black as something that he was ultimately grateful for in his life, as Fox News reported.
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