Regulating Abortion Through Taxation

[micatala]

It has been noted in responses to the free adoption as a solution to abortion thread that trying to eliminate abortions is simply not practical, nor likely to occur in the foreseeable future, whatever policies are enacted towards this end.

I would not disagree with this. We can certainly look at the precedents of attempted bans of certain behaviors which would include prohibition of alcohol, prohibition against other drugs, and prohibition by some churches of artificial contraception. We also have restrictions on certain behaviors, like smoking.

I think most people would agree that the prohibition of alcohol in the U.S. which occurred in the early 20th century was a dismal failure. We haven't banned smoking as yet, and likely such an effort would also be doomed to failure. Rather, we seek to reduce the prevalence of smoking by high taxes and education.

Currently, we restrict legal use of alcohol to those over 21, for the most part. There are also fairly significant taxes on the purchase of alcohol. We know alcohol does have the capacity to cause severe problems in certain individuals, and that these problems are severe enough to significantly effect society at large (drunken driving deaths and damage costs, family break-ups, etc.). However, we continue to allow alcohol consumption, probably because most people can deal with it responsibly, it has a long tradition of use, and we are loathe as a society to put unnecessary restrictions on people.


Now, consider abortion. One could make the case that we have a lot of abortions because a lot of people do not act responsibly with respect to sex.

Would it make sense to use taxation, in conjunction with educational efforts, to try and reduce the prevalence of abortion?

What would the pros and cons of such a policy be?

How should we use revenue gained through such a tax?

[Cephus]

The only way you're going to reduce the number of abortions is to reduce the need for them and that means massive education, availability of effective birth control, etc. Taxing it, threatening people, etc. are not going to do a thing to slow it down. Unfortunately, a lot of people who are against abortion are also against birth control and education, so it's no wonder they're unhappy.