Abortion causes illegal immigration. WTF?

[loose passive]

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Mo. Panel: Immigration, Abortion Linked
- By DAVID A. LIEB, Associated Press Writer
Monday, November 13, 2006


(11-13) 15:25 PST Jefferson City, Mo. (AP) --


A Republican-led legislative panel claims in a new report on illegal immigration that abortion is partly to blame because it is causing a shortage of American workers.


The report from the state House Special Committee on Immigration Reform also claims "liberal social welfare policies" have discouraged Americans from working and encouraged immigrants to cross the border illegally.


The statements about abortion, welfare policies and a recommendation to abolish income taxes in favor of sales taxes were inserted into the immigration report by the committee chairman, Rep. Ed Emery.


All six Democrats on the panel refused to sign the report. Some of them called the abortion assertion ridiculous and embarrassing.


"There's a lot of editorial comment there that I couldn't really stomach," Rep. Trent Skaggs said Monday. "To be honest, I think it's a little delusional."


All 10 Republican committee members signed the report, though one of them, Rep. Billy Pat Wright, said Monday he didn't recall it connecting abortion and illegal immigration.


Emery, who equates abortion to murder, defended the assertions.


"We hear a lot of arguments today that the reason that we can't get serious about our borders is that we are desperate for all these workers," Emery said. "You don't have to think too long. If you kill 44 million of your potential workers, it's not too surprising we would be desperate for workers."


National Right to Life estimates there have been more than 47 million abortions since the Supreme Court established a woman's right to abortion in its 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling. The immigration report estimates there are 80,000 fewer Missourians because of abortion, many of whom now would have been in a "highly productive age group for workers."


The abortion connection to illegal immigration was listed under the report's recommendations on federal social policies and potential state legislative actions on illegal hiring.


"Suggestions for how to stop illegal hiring varied without any simple solution," the report states. "The lack of traditional work ethic, combined with the effects of 30 years of abortion and expanding liberal social welfare policies have produced a shortage of workers and a lack of incentive for those who can work."


Democrats contend the abortion statement wasn't discussed, much less agreed to, by the committee. Emery said there was some testimony about abortion during a question-and-answer session at one of the hearings, although he couldn't recall by whom.


"I felt like that was significant enough and fundamental enough that it warranted addressing it in the report," he said.


Missouri does not keep records of oral testimony during legislative committee hearings.


Skaggs said the abortion statement undermines the credibility of the entire report, which was submitted to the House speaker's office late last week.


"That's ridiculous to draw that conclusion. I don't think that has anything to do with immigration," said committee member Rep. Ed Wildberger, the chairman of the House Democratic caucus.


The report also includes short essays by Emery about the history of immigration, the purpose of immigration laws and the importance of a common language. In those, he notes "the issue of illegal immigration does not lend itself to compromise."



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[scott1]

I am dumber for having read that.

[onthebutton]

So they're saying there are less poor people, so we have to import them?

[BCPVP]

[ QUOTE ]
A Republican-led legislative panel claims in a new report on illegal immigration that abortion is partly to blame because it is causing a shortage of American workers.

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I'm against abortion, but this is a stupid argument. Immigrants come here because the quality of life is better than their home country and there would still be plenty of jobs for them if those who were aborted were still alive.

[BTirish]

Immigration, legal or illegal, will tend to fill in the gaps left by a depressed birthrate. Part of the reason *why* immigrants are able to find a better life here is because there are jobs available for them. Generally, fewer such jobs would be available for immigrants if the birthrate were higher. Abortion serves to depress the birthrate. For political reasons, you might not like that Republican politicians decided to make this connection explicit in a report, but suggesting that it's a stupid connection is incorrect.

The problem of low birthrate and explosive immigration is much bigger in Europe, where the birthrate has imploded over the last 40 years, with many countries far, far below the replacement rate of 2.1 children per couple. The result? Muslim immigrants, the vast majority of whom have arrived in the last half century, already make up for more than a quarter of the population of countries like France. If present trends continue, within a generation France will be majority Muslim.

[AngusThermopyle]

Anyone read 'Freakanomics' ?

[blendedsuit]

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Anyone read 'Freakanomics' ?

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I did, and i think it was book club selection here. Basically its proven that legalizing abortions lowers the crime rate.

[hawk59]

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Anyone read 'Freakanomics' ?

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I did, and i think it was book club selection here. Basically its proven that legalizing abortions lowers the crime rate.

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It's an interesting idea but one coincidence does not prove anything. There are lots of theories as to why the crime rate dropped.

When I first read this I thought 'Abortions probably have very little affect on population', so I looked it up and found that in the US in 2003 there were 4.1mm live births, and 1.3mm abortions. I was pretty shocked by that number, it was about 100x higher than I thought it would be.

[dlk9s]

[ QUOTE ]
Immigration, legal or illegal, will tend to fill in the gaps left by a depressed birthrate. Part of the reason *why* immigrants are able to find a better life here is because there are jobs available for them. Generally, fewer such jobs would be available for immigrants if the birthrate were higher. Abortion serves to depress the birthrate. For political reasons, you might not like that Republican politicians decided to make this connection explicit in a report, but suggesting that it's a stupid connection is incorrect.

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Disclaimer: I put no thought into the following. It just popped into my head. I make no guarantees or warranties of its scientific accuracy.

How about this? If there were fewer abortions, there would be more people. More people would mean a higher demand for goods and services. This higher demand for goods and services would create more jobs. Thus, there would still be jobs for immigrants to fill, even with a greater natural-born American workforce.

[BCPVP]

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Part of the reason *why* immigrants are able to find a better life here is because there are jobs available for them. Generally, fewer such jobs would be available for immigrants if the birthrate were higher.

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This seems to assume that there are a fixed amount of jobs in the economy and that's false.