Swiss Groups Claim Abortions Hurt GDP
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A pro-life group in Switzerland has launched an initiative to ban abortions in the country, claiming that the practice cost billions in lost tax revenues, according to a report by AFP on Wednesday.
The “Protect life to remedy the loss of billions” initiative was launched on Tuesday, appealing for more than 100,000 signatures by August 2014, in order to bring the issue to a national referendum.
A pro-life group in Switzerland has launched an initiative to ban abortions in the country, claiming that the practice cost billions in lost tax revenues, according to a report by AFP on Wednesday.
The “Protect life to remedy the loss of billions” initiative was launched on Tuesday, appealing for more than 100,000 signatures by August 2014, in order to bring the issue to a national referendum.
The group calculated that if the more than 100,000 foetuses aborted in Switzerland over the past decade had been born, they would have contributed nearly 334 billion Swiss francs ($359 billion) to the country’s GDP by working for 45 years, while pumping another 324 billion Swiss francs into the economy as consumers.
[quote]”Each unconceived and unborn child will never be able to contribute a single franc to our national income, will never become a consumer, will never be able to contribute to our social institutions,” the group said on its website.[/quote]“Too many women are slaves to the pill,” it added, urging the government to further place limits on contraception; and ban assisted suicide and stem cell research.
Up until 2002, abortion was technically illegal in Switzerland, unless the mother’s health was in mortal danger. The Swiss government decriminalised abortions in 2002, but several pro-life groups have since tried to call for a national referendum on the issue.
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In 2001 for instance, the Swiss House of Representatives had to vote against an anti-abortion initiative, which had managed to get more than 120,000 signatories against the impending constitutional amendment.
Other initiatives, including ‘Abortion is a private matter’, which willl come before a nationwide vote next year, have also sought to remove abortion from the list of procedures covered by the general compulsory health insurance package.
“I personally am not prepared to co-finance an abortion and I also don’t expect people who are against abortion and condemn it to have to do so,” said Peter, a parliamentarian from the rightwing Swiss People’s Party who is co-president of the initiative committee, as cited by the International Service of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation.
As an alternative, Föhn proposes a system whereby women could either insure themselves separately against the eventuality of wishing to terminate an unwanted pregnancy, or pay for the procedure out of their own pocket.
[quote]“Under no circumstances should the state or the community make abortion easy, encourage it, or as happens in Switzerland, have it paid for by basic insurance,” he added.[/quote]Switzerland already has one of the lowest abortion rates in the world, with only 6.4 abortions for every 1,000 women between the ages of 15 and 44. The average annual worldwide abortion rate is 28 per thousand women of childbearing age.
