Does abortion really help to expand our workforce?

The headline exposes how ludicrous our conversations in the public square have become. Iowa State Auditor Rob Sand tweeted out the following:

Growing our workforce is one of Iowa’s biggest economic challenges. 8 years of total Republican control of lawmaking is not helping. pic.twitter.com/p1MpFBnv2T

— Rob Sand (@RobSandIA) May 8, 2024

“Growing our workforce is one of Iowa’s biggest economic challenges. 8 years of total Republican control of lawmaking is not helping.”

Mr. Sand, a member of the Democratic Party, was reacting to a CNBC tweet that said,

“Abortion bans drive away up to half of young talent, new CNBC/Generation Lab youth survey finds.”

So in Sand’s view, Republicans are responsible.

Let’s take a closer and see if killing off our future workforce via abortion is a good way to increase our workforce.

The states with the most inbound migration are:

1. Texas, where abortion is banned, except in cases involving the Mother’s health.

2. Florida, which passed a Heartbeat Law.

3. Georgia, which passed a Heartbeat Law.

4. South Carolina, where abortion is banned at 6 weeks.

5. Tennessee, where abortion is banned, with limited exceptions.

The states with the most outbound migration are:

1. New York, which has an unqualified right to abortion up to 24 weeks.

2. California, with abortion at viability, with broad exceptions.

3. Illinois, with abortion at viability, with broad exceptions.

4. New Jersey, with no limits on abortion.

5. Massachusetts with abortion available up to 23 weeks and 6 days.

6. Maryland, no limits on abortion.

Iowa ranked 30th on the list, losing 2.16% of its population between 2020 and 2022. Of course, abortion has nothing to do with it, as our current abortion laws on the book are abortions banned at 20 weeks, not much better than New York’s 24 week limit. (That may change if the Iowa Supreme Court lifts the injunction on the Heartbeat Bill next month.)

To review, people are flocking to states that restrict abortion to 6 weeks or less at the same time they are fleeing states that allow it up to 21 weeks and beyond.

If these demographic trends continues, says the Wall Street Journal, these pro-abortion states will lose 12 Congressional seats in the 2030 reapportionment. 

Maybe abortion isn’t the losing issue conventional wisdom proclaims.

So it appears Iowa State Auditor Rob Sand has it kind of backward. When an actual audit of each state’s population is made, people are voting with their feet and moving to red (pro-life) states over blue (pro-abortion) states.

Perhaps killing off future workers using the Blue Party’s tactic (abortion) isn’t as good of an idea as Rob Sand thinks.