WASHINGTON (CN) — Hot on the heels of a controversial court ruling that threatens to further tamp down U.S reproductive rights, the Senate Budget Committee on Wednesday set out to unpack the economic toll such action takes on women.
The upper chamber’s economic affairs panel met as reproductive justice advocates and experts are again sounding the alarm following the Alabama Supreme Court’s decision that frozen embryos used for in vitro fertilization procedures are children under the law. The ruling is just the latest action paring away at access to reproductive care following the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization which rolled back the constitutional right to abortion.
During opening statements at Wednesday’s hearing, Budget Committee Chair Senator Sheldon Whitehouse framed the Dobbs decision and Alabama’s IVF ruling as a portent of possible things to come.
“A Republican-led Congress and a second Trump administration could mean a national abortion ban,” the Rhode Island Democrat said. He added that if reelected, Trump could issue an executive order cracking down on the abortion drug mifepristone.
Beyond denying women bodily autonomy, Whitehouse argued restricting reproductive rights also “casts a long shadow over our economy.” The lawmaker pointed to a recent report from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research which found that abortion restrictions cost states an average of $173 billion annually, thanks in part to reduced labor force participation among women.
Beyond harming state and national economic outlooks, pulling back reproductive freedoms also threatens financial prospects for women, especially those in vulnerable positions, a panel of experts told the committee.
Nearly one quarter of all women will obtain an abortion in their lifetime, said Caitlin Myers, an economics professor at Middlebury College who studies the effects of contraception and abortion on economic outcomes. Among the women who get abortions, nearly three-quarters have low income and more than half reported “recent disruptive life events” such as the loss of a job or lack of housing, she said.
“Access to contraception and abortion empowers women to play on their economic futures,” Myers said.
Recent efforts to clamp down on reproductive freedoms, she said, have had the opposite effect. She cited a 2020 study from the University of Michigan which found that women who are denied abortion care are 78% more likely to have past due debt and experienced an 81% increase in negative credits outcomes such as evictions and bankruptcy.
Myers added that nearly a quarter of women who live in states with abortion bans do not have the means to travel sometimes hundreds of miles to receive care in a state where such procedures are legal. That burden especially hampers young women and women of color, she said.
Even women who manage to travel for abortion care are faced with enormous economic costs, testified Allie Phillips, a reproductive rights activist and Tennessee House candidate who detailed her own experience trying to obtain an abortion.
During her emotional testimony, Phillips explained her difficult decision to seek an abortion after her unborn child Miley experienced serious developmental setbacks that posed a threat to Phillips’ health. Thanks to Tennessee’s 2022 abortion ban which barred the practice in nearly all circumstances, she was forced to travel to New York for the procedure.
In addition to the emotional trauma Phillips suffered trying to find abortion care, which she said left her feeling “small and inconsequential,” her family suffered serious financial setbacks. Phillips had to take time off work to travel for her procedure, she said, and her parents had to step in to help her make ends meet.
“I know that I was lucky to get the care I needed,” Phillips said, “but no one should have to rely on luck to get essential health care. We must have a federal right to access the health care we need, no matter where we live or how much we earn.”
Republicans on the Budget Committee brought forward witnesses who argued that Congress should be more concerned about the factors that lead women to consider abortion.
Leslie Ford, an adjunct fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, argued that studies that conclude abortion leads to better outcomes for women “only point to correlations” and said lawmakers should hesitate to make policy based on that research.
Ford dialed instead on federal social programs, which she argued currently “tra[p] people in poverty by discouraging both work and marriage.” Congress should consider reforming the social safety net to guide people through education, full-time employment and marriage before encouraging pregnancy, she said.
“Unplanned pregnancies present real challenges for mothers,” Ford contended, “but abortion isn’t the answer. We can and must support these women, empowering them to overcome the challenges they face.”
Some Republican lawmakers, meanwhile, were generally skeptical of the hearing’s premise.
Louisiana Senator John Kennedy, who has long been a vocal opponent of abortion, took issue with remarks from committee chair Whitehouse who equated reproductive justice with economic justice. The lawmaker attempted to get several witnesses to weigh in on his colleague’s statement and demanded to know whether they supported “abortion up to the moment of birth.”
In a particularly tense moment, Kennedy also took time to explain in graphic detail a second-trimester abortion procedure known as dilation and evacuation. During his explanation, the lawmaker displayed an image of a fetus at 21 weeks gestation — the same period at which the witness Phillips had her abortion.
Kennedy’s remarks and imagery drew consternation from Democrats on the panel, with Whitehouse attempting to cut him off. The Louisiana Republican was unrepentant.
“I thought we were here about protecting mothers and killing babies,” he said.
Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow, who followed up Kennedy’s questioning, apologized to Phillips for the display which she called “shameful.”
Phillips herself shot back at the Louisiana Republican later in the hearing, although he had long since departed the chamber.
“Senator Kennedy came to this hearing knowing that there was going to be a mother here who had to make the difficult decision to terminate a 20-week pregnancy and decided it was in his best interest to show a 21-week fetus,” she said. “His testimony was nothing but fearmongering.”
Phillips slammed the notion of making reproductive rights a political issue, arguing that there are thousands if not millions of women in the U.S. who may need abortion care. She urged Congress to enshrine abortion access into law without exception.
“When someone needs health care, they should be able to receive that health care when they need it and not have to navigate the hurdles I did,” Phillips said. “Abortion access is essential heath care, no matter how you want to look at it.”
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