Monday, September 16, 2013

The Economics of Abortion Clinics

Abortion clinics appear to be closing at a record rate:

This year, 42 clinics that provided surgical abortions have shut their doors, and two that offered chemical abortions by drugs also have closed, according to Operation Rescue, which monitors closings and health and safety violations by clinics nationwide. That number far surpasses the 25 surgical clinics shutdown last year and the 30 in 2011, by Operation Rescue's count. While others estimate a smaller number of closings, the pattern is clear.

There are numerous reason as to why. Many abortion advocates are blaming new safety regulations imposed by several states. Of course, when they complain like that, they are merely pointing out that many of these clinics are unsafe.

Abortion clinics have been one of the most unregulated facilities in comparison to other out patient surgery centers for decades now. This is largely because of the highly charged issue that is related to it and so state and local politicians tend to overlook some of the more glaring safety hazards that some of these clinics operate under. If a Republican, for example, proposes a law to require stricter standards on an abortion clinic, he or she will be painted as anti-woman and anti-choice by many on the Left (and in the libertarian baby-killer side as well). The mere fact that stricter standards are finally being passed, ones that tend to match other out patient facilities that perform similarly invasive procedures, demonstrates that such politically motivated hate speech is falling on deaf ears.

Increased regulations aside, that doesn't account for more closures unfortunately. You could claim that, but even Planned Parenthood gets money from the Federal government to maintain their "women's health" clinics. So, either they are being honest with the grant money they receive or they are simply unable to maintain the cost of some of their clinics versus the expenses said clinics are incurring.

It's really that simple. Less women are getting abortions. This is probably because more and more young people do not consider abortion to be a proper form of contraception. And ask yourself what age group of women are more likely to get an abortion? Here's a hint: it isn't the old feminists with their dusty old womb-holes.

To top that off, in the 40+ years since it was legalized in the entire country by unelected "officials", we may be seeing the clientele drop off as those who were most likely to use abortion services were aborted themselves. It's rather ironic really but perfectly understandable. If you perform enough abortions, you eventually run out of people who want to abort their children within a generation or two. This also explains my point in my earlier paragraph.

I have given up on outright outlawing abortion because the political class (both Democrats and Republicans alike) need abortion legal in order to shore up a significant percentage of their voter base. Republicans like it legal because they will always have the vote of the pro-life crowd, so long as they are pro-life, and the Democrats secure the single women vote because single women like to be subservient to limp-wristed cowards. That is the political reality with regards to abortion in the United States.

However, I do think that abortion should be considered unthinkable, in the same way that raping a child is unthinkable in the minds of the majority, regardless of what laws are passed. No, it will not stop people from doing it, but at the same time plenty of clinics will go out of business.