Sober Second Thoughts on Economics, Politics, and Culture
I believe in the concept of limited government. What I mean by limited government is one where the responsibilities of government are 1) few and 2) well defined. This belief is rooted in the idea that governments have certain boundaries that they should not cross, and have certain tasks that...
read moreI believe that it is time to revisit the policy of using public funds to pay for abortions.
Currently, you and I are silent partners in the delivery of abortions.
Why are we silent partners? The silent part is because we do not have any say in whether the government funds abortions. Even though the majority of Canadians do not support the current policy of abortion funding, all governments, except Prince Edward Island, continue to do so.
We are partners in the delivery of abortions because we help pay for each and every abortion performed in our province. Every paycheque that we earn and every item that we purchase contributes to the general revenue funds of our province. It is from the general revenue funds that all publicly funded healthcare services are paid for…and abortion is one of those services paid for with these funds.
read moreThe right to abortion is simply the permission granted by the government for a pregnant individual to terminate their pregnancy. Permission to have an abortion is one thing, but providing the funding for it is quite another. Nowhere has it ever been stated, either implicitly or explicitly, that this right should also come with the necessary funding to have it performed.
There are many things that we have a right to have or do that are not usually funded by government. A good example of this is food. Most Canadians buy their own food, expect others to do likewise, but are fine with government stepping in to helping those who are in an unusually unfortunate situation. The same can also be said about a number of other rights such as housing and clothing.
read morePublic funds used for abortions result in less health care dollars available for other procedures. This is an economic reality – resources used for one purpose are not available to for another purpose.
It is estimated that the cost of a publicly funded abortion ranges from $700 – $1,000. In the Province of Saskatchewan, an average of 2000 abortions have been performed each year between 2006-2010 (1850 performed in 2006, with number rising year to 2150 performed in 2010) .
Based on the estimates given above, Saskatchewan residents devoted between $1.4 million and $2.0 million each of those years to fund abortions in the province. The question that should be asked is “What else could that money have been used for?”
read moreEconomist Hans Hermann-Hoppe stated, “one of the most fundamental principles of all economics is that one will end up getting more of what is being subsidized”.
When farmers are subsidized to grow a certain crop or raise a certain animal, increased quantities of that crop or animal is the result. When certain industries or businesses receive subsidies, then more of the goods produced by those industries or businesses is the result. The same is true for abortion. Government-subsidised abortion results in more abortions being performed than if individuals had to pay for the abortion themselves.
This idea is backed up by facts. Data shows that the province that does restrict the amount of public funding available for abortions, Prince Edward Island, has a considerably lower ratio of abortions to pregnancies than those provinces that do fund abortions.
read moreThose that support publicly-funded abortion often forget an important fact about public funds – the only funds that government have are those that they first took from someone else.
When government provides funding for abortion they are taking funds from one group of people and giving it another group to be used in ways that the first group would not do themselves. These funds are not provided voluntarily, they are taken with the threat of jail or fines, or both, if people do not comply. If you don’t believe this, then see what happens when you don’t pay your income taxes or try and buy something without paying the accompanying sales tax.
read moreIn Canada, the administration of healthcare is a provincial responsibility. The provinces decide which services will, or will not, receive public funds. In fact, there is no law explicitly stating which services a province must provide. Furthermore, most, if not all, provinces have delisted services that were once provided by the health care system. It is expected that the provinces will exercise their power to delist services in the future. As such, there is no reason for abortion not to be one those services.
Some provincial legislators argue that they are required by the Canadian Health Act to fund abortions in their respective provinces. This is not true. Prince Edward Island does not allow abortions to be performed in that province, and it is within their legal right to do so. Currently, there are no abortions performed, privately-funded or publicly-funded, within the boundaries of that province. The government of Prince Edward Island will only use public funds for abortions that are for the purpose of saving the life of the mother – but these abortions must be performed in a hospital in another province.
read more“There is only one difference between a bad economist and a good one; the bad economist confines himself to the visible effect; the good economist takes into account both the effect that can be seen and those effects that must be foreseen”
Frederic Bastiat
read more“While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
Paul
read more“You cannot touch or see a political institution: it can be known only by an effort of constructive imagination. Neither can you apprehend by physical perception a political measure: this no less requires a process of mental representation by which its element are put together in thought,and the essential nature of the combination conceived”
Herbert Spencer
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