Chelsea Clinton gives legal abortion credit for boosting the American economy.

Speaking at a Planned Parenthood-sponsored rally opposing the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the US Supreme Court, she attempted to help her audience of abortion activists add financial persuasion to their arsenal of arguments for abortion rights.

Ms. Clinton stated, “American women entering the labor force from 1973 to 2009 added three and a half trillion dollars to our economy. Right?”

Actually-the 60-plus million abortions that have taken place since the Roe v. Wade decision have constituted a huge drag on our economy.

In 1998, the late Larry Burkett, a highly regarded financial expert, argued that “it is largely because of abortion-on-demand that by the year 2030 the ratio of workers to Social Security beneficiaries will be reduced to only 2-to-1…two workers will be supporting one retiree. (When the program began in the 1930’s, 42 workers supported each retiree.)”

Dennis Howard spent 30 years as a market researcher and consultant for major corporations. He is currently President of the pro-life group, Movement for a Better America. He has researched the economic impact of abortion since 1995 using data from Planned Parenthood’s own Alan Guttmacher Institute and US government figures stating Gross Domestic Product per capita. He argues that the loss of lives due to abortion provides a cumulative drag on GDP that “will keep growing no matter what.”

“Because of the echo effect,” he writes, “61.4 million missing births in one generation automatically means 61 million fewer births in the next.” Those are workers we need right now. And tax revenues.

If Chelsea Clinton’s utilitarian economic case for abortion were correct, she would be presenting a stark moral choice between money and human lives. The reality is abortion has not only eroded our workforce, it is shrinking the voter base — mostly in blue states. Arguing for abortion makes for bad economics and bad politics.