Chelsea Clinton Says Comments About Abortion Helping the Economy Were Misrepresented
Chelsea Clinton has responded to critics of her recent remarks linking Roe v. Wade and economic growth, saying that her words were misrepresented.
Earlier this month, Clinton spoke at a pro-choice event in New York City called "Rise Up For Roe" where she claimed that Roe v. Wade helped contribute trillions of dollars to the United States economy because it led to more women entering the workforce.
"American women entering the labor force from 1973 to 2009 added three-and-a-half trillion dollars to our economy," said Clinton at the time.
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"The net, new entrance of women — that is not disconnected from the fact that Roe became the law of the land in January of 1973. So I think, whatever it is that people say they care about, I think that you can connect to this issue."
In response to a tweet from conservative filmmaker and author Dinesh D'Souza, Clinton stated that she was not claiming that having an abortion was good for the economy, but that women were more likely to enter the workforce due to the legalization of abortion.
"Hi Dinesh- not what I said. Foremost, protecting reproductive health rights protects women's human rights & health," tweeted Clinton on Saturday evening.
"From 1973-1985, American women's deaths from abortion declined 5-fold. Reproductive rights are also about women's economic rights and agency."
Clinton added in another tweet that her original comments referred to "more women entering the workforce from 1970 on" and how this "wasn't disconnected from their ability to make reproductive health care choices, including post Roe."
Other critics to Clinton's comments included the Reverend Franklin Graham, head of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
"Chelsea Clinton claims that legalizing abortion added trillions of dollars to the economy. What a lie," stated Graham last week.
"Hitler probably also claimed that killing the Jews would be good for their economy. Legalizing abortion hasn't added anything to our country, it has only taken away. It has cost this nation more than 60 million lives — lives precious to God."
The Christian satire site Babylon Bee lampooned Clinton, running a fake news story titled "Chelsea Clinton Claims Holocaust Added $3.5 Trillion To German Economy."
In addition to Clinton herself, the left-leaning fact-check website Snopes also posted an entry about the comments, stating they "were not always accurately paraphrased by her critics."
"Note that at no point did Clinton literally say that Roe v. Wade (much less tens of millions of abortions) added $3.5 trillion to the economy. She said that women entering the labor force in the decades after the 1973 decision added $3.5 trillion to the economy, and that these developments were connected," said Snopes.
"Moreover, to suggest that Roe v. Wade made it possible for more women to join the workforce is not the same as saying that it was because they all had abortions. The mere fact that abortion services were accessible and provided women with an alternative to dropping out of the labor force if they became pregnant could have served as an encouragement to them, even if they never availed themselves of those services."
