It’s so interesting watching Republicans overreach on abortion over and over, despite the fact that they don’t even have electoral support for it. Ideological commitment might explain it, but I can’t help be draw this back to materialistic explanations.

Abortion slows population growth, which weighs on the labor market and necessitates immigration for essential workers. Abortion liberates women, allowing them to control their own bodies and lives. Abortion especially liberates the poor, allowing them to control their own family planning and not have children they can’t afford. All of these things weigh on the economy, which needs an endless supply of desperate workers for profitability.

Republicans have so many reasons to oppose abortion that ideology and electability is almost irrelevant.