It would generate revenue that could be applied to free birth control, help fund child care and education.
It would also generate costs associated with investigating every instance of abortion, including ones that don't actually happen in clinics, because there's only like 200 ways to induce an abortion on yourself, with all the information freely available online, to make sure such tax is paid. I know people who have never filed an income tax return, already. They aren't going to be prosecuted (for the most part, if the taxes are taken out by an employer, they are losing out on money available to them) because the cost of chasing after someone who owes the IRS seven bucks costs more than seven hundred bucks.
Everything thing sounds great when you ignore costs and highlight revenue.
It hasn't been implemented so there is no data to date to prove it would decrease abortions, but it would help encourage greater responsibility and accountability.
Also no data to prove it would encourage greater responsibility and accountability. At least the former is something that you probably could prove because it's a quantitative factor. There is no responsibility and accountability scale.
The evidence is the fact that a tax would be applied in which those subjected to it would be held responsible for paying, thus resulting in a degree of accountability.
In what other instance has a tax ever held anyone responsible or accountable?
If they follow your lead and leave the country to evade. Good riddance! This nation is better better off without you.
I think of more as I'd be better off without this nation.
Also, I don't think abortion is irresponsible either. Sometimes it's the most responsible thing to do. Getting pregnant while being unwilling to have a child however IS irresponsible when it could easily be prevented by simple modifications in behavior.
Dude, half of all pregnancies are unintended. A few are happening at the moment you read this. If it was easily prevented by simple modifications in behavior, there would be millions and millions of instance accidentally doing it.
"• Most American families want two children. To achieve this, the average woman spends about five years pregnant, postpartum or trying to become pregnant, and three decades—more than three-quarters of her reproductive life—trying to avoid an unintended pregnancy.[
1]
• Most individuals and couples want to plan the timing and spacing of their childbearing and to avoid unintended pregnancies, for a range of social and economic reasons. In addition, unintended pregnancy has a public health impact: Births resulting from unintended or closely spaced pregnancies are associated with adverse maternal and child health outcomes, such as delayed prenatal care, premature birth and negative physical and mental health effects for children. [
2,3,4]
• For these reasons, reducing the unintended pregnancy rate is a national public health goal. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’
Healthy People 2020 campaign aims to reduce unintended pregnancy by 10%, from 49% of pregnancies to 44% of pregnancies, over the next 10 years.[
5]
• Currently, about half (51%) of the 6.6 million pregnancies in the United States each year (3.4 million) are unintended
see box).[
6]
• In 2008, 40% of unintended pregnancies (excluding miscarriages) ended in abortion and 60% ended in birth. This was a shift from 2001, when 47% ended in abortion and 53% ended in a birth.[
6]
• Two-thirds (68%) of U.S. women at risk for unintended pregnancy use contraception consistently and correctly throughout the course of any given year; these women account for only 5% of all unintended pregnancies. In contrast, the 18% of women at risk who use contraception inconsistently or incorrectly account for 41% of all unintended pregnancies. The 14% of women at risk who do not practice contraception at all or who have gaps of a month or more during the year account for 54% of all unintended pregnancies (
see graph).[
14]
• Publicly funded family planning services help women avoid pregnancies they do not want and plan pregnancies they do want. In 2013, these services helped women avoid 2 million unintended pregnancies, which would likely have resulted in about 1 million unintended births and nearly 700,000 abortions.[
15]
• Without publicly funded family planning services, the number of unintended pregnancies, unplanned births and abortions occurring in the United States would be 60% higher among women overall.[
15]
• The costs associated with unintended pregnancy would be even higher if not for continued federal and state investments in family planning services. In 2010, the nationwide public investment in family planning services resulted in $13.6 billion in net savings from helping women avoid unintended pregnancies and a range of other negative reproductive health outcomes, such as HIV and other STIs, cervical cancer and infertility.[
16]
• In the absence of the current U.S. publicly funded family planning effort, the public costs of unintended pregnancies in 2010 might have been 75% higher.[
13]
http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/FB-Unintended-Pregnancy-US.html
As for poverty and the correlation between it and those who abort. You're suggesting poverty directly influences the reason people have abortions, right? I would agree, but then there's an underlying cause that places them in such positions. What do you think that might be?
I'd imagine wealthier people might actually get more abortions in general. I'd have to look at that more specifically cause I might be wrong. Either way, unintended pregnancies happen more lower on economic scale.
As for taxing drug users. Sure! Lets legalize drugs like abortions and that would be a very valid suggestion.
Mm, if drugs are legalized, there's not really a reason to tax drug users, because most would ignore legalities and acquire it elsewhere anyways. As for illegal drug use. That's actually a problem, it funds criminals. A tax on weed itself has already made CO a lot of money.
Furthermore, you said you'd quit working to evade the tax. Most don't have that luxury and are required to work.
People are going to have abortions despite it's legality and its conditions. By adding a 5% tax for life to an abortion, you're going to encourage abortions in not medically safe environments by professionals. As I mentioned, how to abort will yield as much as you'd imagine online as anything else does.
I think you need to take this one back to the drawing board. A more appropriate idea would be to work for national acceptance of the only methods PROVED to reduce abortion, no attempting to recreate the wheel.
