Janet Yellen stated yesterday that banning abortion would be bad for the economy.

Believe me, I thought it was an Onion or Babylon Bee article at first. But no, she really did tell Congress that banning abortion would damage our economy. 

Let’s look to the text of her testimony. 

“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,” Yellen told lawmakers during an annual review of the Financial Stability Oversight Council, which she chairs.

Yellen was responding to a question from Democratic Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey about the leaked draft opinion that revealed the US Supreme Court could overturn the landmark case. The Treasury secretary added that research shows Roe v. Wade had a favorable impact on the well-being and even the earnings of children.

Wait WHAT?? Allowing abortion on demand, all the way up to birth if the Democrats had their way, would HELP children succeed economically?? Read the above again. Having an abortion, which means KILLING a baby before it’s born, would benefit…children?

Oh wait, there’s more.  

“What we are talking about is whether or not women will have the ability to regulate their reproductive situation in ways that will enable them to plan lives that are fulfilling and satisfying for them,” Yellen said Tuesday.

The Biden official said that one aspect of a satisfying life is to “feel that you have the financial resources to raise a child, that the children you bring into the world are wanted, and that you have the ability to take care of them.”

“In many cases,” she continued, “abortions are teenage women, particularly low income, and often black, who aren’t in a position to be able to care for children, have unexpected pregnancies, and it deprives them of the ability, often, to continue their education to later participate in the workforce.”

Oh I see, if one gets pregnant after having unprotected sex, getting an abortion will magically ensure a satisfying, fulfilling, and economically SUCCESSFUL life. Are you kidding me??!! 

Secondly, there are many women out there who’ve gotten pregnant, are from low-income families, and through sheer grit and resilience have persevered and ended up better than where they started. However, according to Yellen, that never ends up being the case. 

“Roe v. Wade and access to reproductive health care, including abortion, helped lead to increased labor force participation,” Yellen said. “It enabled many women to finish school. That increased their earning potential. It allowed women to plan and balance their families and careers.”

Research makes clear that “denying women access to abortion increased their odds of living in poverty or need for public assistance,” Yellen said, in likely reference to a September 2021 amicus brief filed by more than 150 prominent economists.

Let me just ask those fabulous researchers something. Did ANY of you study how many women and teenage girls who’ve gotten abortions are living on welfare? How many of those living on welfare were suddenly able to succeed economically after their abortion? I would bet even money that, for many, the cycle of welfare and poverty continued because the government dole was easier than stepping up to the plate and going to work.

Well, Senator Tim Scott was having none of it. He blistered Janet Yellen up one side and down the other.

CHILLS. @SenatorTimScott delivers a stunning rebuke to Janet Yellen claiming black women need abortions to succeed: “I’ll just simply say that as a guy raised by a black woman in abject poverty, I am thankful to be here as a United States senator.”

pic.twitter.com/hnPeSMhJyG

— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) May 10, 2022

Follow up: "My circumstance is like so many others… millions of kids being raised in poverty by single parent households who happen to be black. Telling black teenage moms that there is only one alternative for them is a depressing & challenging message."https://t.co/Y23cWZgby6

— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) May 10, 2022

Having a major government official bluntly suggest that having an abortion is the only way to succeed fiscally is both horrifying and evil on all levels. Yellen essentially stated that abortion is a young woman’s (specifically a young black woman’s) ONLY way out of poverty. 

The terrible economist who couldn't or wouldn't see that the inflation wasn't transitory, now cant see that a Black woman's success or failure is NOT dependent on the ability to kill their unborn child.

— #BAM (Black Agency Matters) (@hmbaker90) May 10, 2022

That messaging is wrong on all levels. It is wrong morally and economically, and quite frankly, I consider it more than a bit racist. 

Actually, reducing birthrates creates a smaller aging workforce. The smaller workforce reduces productivity and would be harder tasked to support social programs like social security through taxation. It's been playing out for over a decade now.

— Max Diesel (@MaxDieselRI) May 10, 2022

Senator Tim Scott was absolutely correct to step in and blister Janet Yellen for those remarks. She went way out of her lane on this.

THIS is the message every young woman should hear. 

“I think to myself, had it not been for her sacrifice, her perseverance, her resilience, I would not be where I am today,” Scott said last year of his mother, who raised her two sons on her own while she worked as a nurse’s assistant. “For me, there has been no better witness, no more powerful force than Frances Scott.”

“I know what you had inside of you and what you were capable of doing, so, therefore, I couldn’t give up,” the senator’s mother told him.

You want to succeed on all levels including economically, but most of all succeed in raising exceptional kids? Go with Tim Scott and the example his mother set. If he can succeed, because of his mother’s perseverance, you can as well. 

Feature Photo Credit: Janet Yellen caricature by Donkeyhotey via Flickr, cropped and modified