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Abortion and the Minimum Wage Law

By Walter Block

March 24, 2025

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Abortion and the minimum wage law are not usually linked together. Their juxtaposition puts one in mind of oil and water, or fish and bicycles.

Yet, surprisingly, these two have something in common. In fact, they have an intimate relationship.

Several states have passed laws requiring doctors who perform abortions to be associated with a local hospital. See the Supreme Court ruling on a case of this sort, June Medical Services v. Gee (2019), which determined the constitutional standing of this legislative initiative.

But we are not interested in what the law says about such legislative enactments. Rather, our concern is with the economics of it. What are the effects of it? What are the economic incentives to pass such legislation in the first place? What, oh, what could this possibly have to do with the economics of the minimum wage law? Stay tuned to see the results of our inquiry.

Superficially, this is a pro-abortion initiative. After all, a physician with admitting privileges at a nearby hospital is in a better position to serve patients than one who lacks this connection. If something goes wrong, he will be more able to provide almost immediate assistance.

However, as everyone fully knows, the very opposite is the case. The intent behind these enactments is to reduce the number of abortions, not to improve their safety, and this, in the overwhelming number of cases, is precisely their result.

How does that work? The more stringent or more numerous the requirements, the smaller the available pool of doctors who will qualify. For example, add to admitting privileges the prerequisite that an abortion doctor must have a minimum of 30 years’ worth of experience or has graduated from a “Cadillac” medical school and the supply of abortionists falls even further. The higher the bar is raised, the more difficult it is to jump over it.

Surface appearances can thus be deceiving.

Everyone and his uncle sees through the rising requirements for abortion doctors. Yet very few can appreciate the fact that the minimum wage law plays an analogous role.

A similar analysis applies to the minimum wage law. At the outset, this, also, appears to be in the aid of the intended beneficiary; only this time not for pregnant women seeking an abortion, but rather for low-wage employees. What could benefit them more than boosting their rates of compensation?

But again, surface appearances can be deceiving. Wages are determined by productivity (discounted marginal revenue product in technical terminology). An increase in the legal minimum wage does not function like a rising floor, dragging productivity in an upward direction as it rises. Instead, it functions in much the same way as more and more severe requirements for doctors: as a barrier over which the unskilled workers must jump.

Think in terms of the high-jump bar in track and field: the higher it is perched, the fewer the number of athletes who can sail over it. In similar manner, the more stringent the requirements for the abortion doctor, the fewer will be able to render this service. As a result, the fewer the number of abortions there will be. Similarly, the higher the minimum wage level, the fewer the number of job applicants will be able to rise above it, dragging their productivity levels with them.

The unsophisticated will continue to believe that the jumped-up abortion requirements and the upward-spiraling minimum wages actually aid their presumptive beneficiaries. But in neither case is this true.

Everyone and his uncle sees through the rising requirements for abortion doctors. Yet very few can appreciate the fact that the minimum wage law plays an analogous role. Perhaps now that we have linked them together, appreciation of what the former does will help with the understanding that the identical result occurs in the latter case.

 

Sources:

https://www.npr.org/2019/10/04/763863712/supreme-court-revisits-abortion-with-louisiana-case

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/04/us/politics/supreme-court-abortion-louisiana.html

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/dec/26/supreme-court-to-hear-louisiana-abortion-case-in-2/

https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/19pdf/18-1323_c07d.pdf

 

Editor’s note: This article was first published on CIOStory.com, which is no longer extant, and is reprinted here at the behest of and with the permission of the author.

 

 

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