The Colorado state legislature is currently considering legislation that would require the state Medicaid program to cover elective abortions. This would make Colorado the 20th state whose Medicaid program covers elective abortion. In other states, supporters of publicly funded abortions typically argue that it is a necessary step to ensure that low-income women have access to abortion. However, Colorado Democrats have trotted out a new, more perverse argument. They claim that publicly funded abortions would save state taxpayers money.

Indeed, last week Colorado’s Legislative Council Staff released a fiscal note analyzing SB 25-183, the bill requiring that Colorado’s Medicaid program and Child Health Plan Plus program to cover elective abortions. The analysis found that this would increase the number of taxpayer-funded abortions. However, since the state Medicaid program would be paying for fewer births, there would be an overall cost savings. Democratic state legislators have eagerly cited this analysis. The speaker of the house, Julie McCluskie (D., Dilllon), stated at a committee hearing that “a birth is more expensive than an abortion.”

The arguments put forth by Colorado Democrats are bad economics and even worse ethics. The cost estimates put forth by the Legislative Council Staff are not unreasonable. However, there are several factors they fail to fully consider. First, a very broad body of research shows that when state Medicaid programs cover elective abortion, abortion rates increase. Additionally, in states whose Medicaid programs cover elective abortion, a growing fraction of abortions are covered by Medicaid. In my recent Lozier Institute article, I explain that, if Colorado’s Medicaid program covered elective abortions, Colorado taxpayers would be paying over $2 million for over 4,500 abortions annually.

Importantly, because of the Hyde amendment, Colorado taxpayers will be paying for nearly all of these Medicaid-funded abortions. However, it should be noted that the federal government subsidizes other health services covered by Colorado’s Medicaid program. Colorado taxpayers pay for only a fraction of the cost of Medicaid births. Indeed, contrary to the assertion of Colorado Democrats, covering elective abortion would cost Colorado taxpayers money. While that is mentioned in the Legislative Council Staff fiscal note, it is largely obscured.

Furthermore, Medicaid coverage of elective abortion entails other costs that the Legislative Council Staff in its fiscal note fails to take into account. For instance, it fails to consider both the cost of post-abortion care and the likelihood that some of the abortions covered by the state Medicaid program would be late-term abortions, which are far more costly. Finally, the Legislative Council Staff in its fiscal note does not take into account that Colorado’s Medicaid program would incur costs from women who suffered physical and mental health complications in the aftermath of their abortions.

Regardless of the data, the notion that the state should encourage low-income pregnant women to obtain abortions rather than give birth is insidious. Would Colorado Democrats encourage pregnant women with adverse prenatal diagnoses to seek abortions because disabled children are costly to the state? Would they encourage that the elderly in state-funded nursing homes be euthanized to save the state money? What about those in state mental hospitals or state prisons? Sadly, the statements made by Colorado Democrats makes it abundantly clear that they are all too willing to sacrifice the lives of the weak and vulnerable on the altar of economic expediency.