Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin - The Hidden Cost of the Texas Abortion Ban

Episode Date: October 1, 2021

Texas’ new abortion legislation has been hotly debated since it was announced earlier this month. What’s beyond debate is that this legislation will hurt women’s economic freedom and target people in lower socioeconomic groups. Today, Nicole breaks down the financial implications of the headlines, and how you can make your voice heard. If you'd like to learn how to get in touch with your local representative, click here: https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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And should I have a 401k? You don't do it? No, I never do it. You think the whole world revolves around you and your money. Well, it doesn't. Charge for wasting our time. I will take a check. Like an old school check. You recognize her from anchoring on CNN, CNBC, and Bloomberg. The only financial expert you don't need a dictionary to understand. Nicole Lappin.

So this is an uncomfortable topic for me to cover, but I wanted to put out an episode because I rarely see it linked to financial issues. And I am very strong in my belief that taking away a woman's right to choose is taking away her financial future and freedom. This month, the Supreme Court upheld legislation in Texas that imposed further restrictions on access to abortion. In the media, this is being called an abortion ban because it practically makes it impossible for women to have abortions in the state. If you've skimmed the headlines, you've seen that the new legislation now bans abortion for women who are six weeks pregnant, which is earlier than most women even

know they're pregnant. As you heard in episode 26, I had a miscarriage earlier this year, and it was only then, actually, that I discovered how pregnancy weeks work. Two weeks are basically added on. It's counted from your last menstrual cycle, which is technically before conception. So this six weeks business is really four weeks from conception. And it's really hard for any woman to know she's pregnant then. Even if you're the exception and you find out that you're pregnant at five or even four weeks, then you only have a short window to jump through all the hoops required to get an abortion in Texas before you hit the six-week, which is technically four weeks post-conception, mark. But what you might not have seen in the headlines is that this new legislation creates a vigilante system of mobilizing citizens in Texas to punish

people who are involved in an abortion. This law gives Texans a financial incentive to sue anyone that helps facilitate women getting an abortion. And that could be a family member that gives someone the money to get an abortion. It could be an Uber driver who takes a woman to the clinic or the clinic itself. What's the incentive? Well, people that initiate these lawsuits get their legal fees covered, plus a whopping $10,000. It turns people into bounty hunters, essentially hunting anyone involved in an abortion effort. $10,000 is a lot of money. For many people, that's a hard number to say no to. I get it. There are no exceptions to this legislation. This law applies to anyone facilitating a woman seeking

an abortion for any reason, from a married woman who wants to be childless, a teenage girl not ready to get pregnant, or even a rape or incest victim. It has been said that this portion of the legislation will go away as a concession of those in favor of the ban. It's a negotiating tactic at the end of the day. Put in a whole bunch of extra things in the deal only to concede on them in the negotiating process to let the other side believe they're getting something. But even with that something, we will likely be left with the ban on abortions in the state. Of course, I understand that this is a very contentious issue. Often this topic gets shoehorned into a partisan argument, Republicans versus Democrats. But I do

not think that this is an issue of politics. I think this really gets to the heart of those things assured to us by our political system, like equality and the pursuit of happiness. our political system, like equality and the pursuit of happiness. I know this firsthand. I have never opened up about this on an open mic, but as you know, the only way I know how to tell a story is to tell it honestly. I was much younger when I had my one and only pregnancy termination or abortion. I was on and off with a boyfriend at the time, and he was very clear that he did not want to have a child with me. I was on birth control, and it happened to conflict with another medicine I was on, making it, unbeknownst to me, ineffective. I'll never forget showing him the pregnancy result and seeing his face turn cold. This was in stark contrast to finding out I was pregnant for the

second time earlier this year, and my partner was elated and basically doing a happy dance around our living room. I've never minced words about my deep desire to have a family. I want one of my own more than anything else, except one other thing, not knowingly fucking it up. I know when I found out that I was pregnant for the first time that I would have done just that. It would have been inevitable. I couldn't at the time knowingly bring a child into this world who was unwanted, who would live with a broken home like I did. To those who think this choice is another form of birth control, it's not. Being pro-choice doesn't mean you're pro-abortion. No one is pro-abortion. It was and I believe will always be the worst day of my life. And I've had some pretty bad days. I was in my doctor's office for six

hours crying hysterically before making the most wretched decision of my life. I was sure that I would be haunted by this forever. I was sure that I would never have a day go by where I didn't cry over this. Of course, the days between the ones in which I think about it have increased over the years, but when they come, they crush me like they're doing right now. I will always mourn what was ultimately the right decision to make at the time. Who knows how my life would have been different had I not made the choice. It's unlikely that I would have put out the books I did. It's unlikely I would have this show or be speaking to you right now.

It wasn't until I started talking about my own experience that I realized how many people go through this. I felt completely isolated in this experience because I thought I was. I thought none of my friends would be able to understand what I was feeling. But when I started opening up to my inner circle about what I was going through, I was so surprised to hear how many people I knew that had been through the very same thing. Some of these women I actually knew at the time they had an abortion, but they didn't tell me. They didn't tell anyone. It was a secret that weighed heavily on their hearts for years. I was so surprised by how many women I knew that had

went through terminating a pregnancy because it's kept so deep in the shadows, both on a personal but also a global level. Few organizations publish data and studies about abortion, in part because of the secrecy and controversy around the topic. But there is some information out there if you look hard enough for it. For example, the World Health Organization said that over 1 million abortions were performed in just the first 10 days of 2021. That is a huge number. That represents a constellation of many different reasons that many different women felt it was the right decision for them. It does make me wonder about the people who picket at abortion clinics. I wonder who they think they're fighting for and who they're fighting against. In reality, they're picketing against their own daughters, their own sisters, their own wives, their friends,

their neighbors, millions of women who are experiencing something that people on the other side of the picket line will never, ever understand. It is my firm belief that women should have the right to make this decision for themselves. If a woman does not feel she's in the position to be a good mother, I respect that woman's thoughtfulness. As someone who had a very difficult childhood myself, I can say from personal experience that if someone is not ready to be a parent, life at home becomes very difficult and even in my case traumatic. I also stand as an ally to sexual assault survivors and recognize that an important part of the healing process after a sexual assault

is for survivors to regain a feeling of power over their bodies. Choice is power. And for me, that's the core of this issue. My stance is not pro-abortion, but pro-choice. Because when that right to choose is taken away, women lose autonomy over their bodies, autonomy over their finances, and autonomy over their dreams. In another episode, we talked about the big impact a baby can make on your finances. Having a child is expensive and something you need to budget for. Some estimates put the annual cost of having a child at expensive and something you need to budget for. Some estimates put the annual cost of having a child at around $10,000, while others put it at $17,000. Being faced suddenly with unexpected costs ranging in the tens of thousands of dollars could put someone's

life on hold. If a woman gets pregnant while in school, she might need to drop out to work full time to cover child care costs. And then without that advanced degree, she might need to drop out to work full-time to cover child care costs. And then without that advanced degree, she might be forced to take a lower-paying job and get stuck under the glass ceiling. This has a ripple effect across the national economy. If governments put women into positions where they can't follow their career aspirations because of an unwanted pregnancy, the government is essentially stunting the growth of half the population. That woman who had to drop out of school to find a job, she could have developed the vaccine for the Delta variant. Who knows? Or she could have invented the next big company that

creates millions of jobs for unemployed people right now. This is a social justice issue because reproductive rights have always been harder to secure for women in low income families. Women with money or privilege or both will always be able to get an abortion if they want one. But increasing restrictions on reproductive health in states like Texas jack up the cost of abortion access. It pushes options further out of reach for low income women. I was reading a story about a woman in Texas who even before the abortion ban struggled to get an abortion because of the cost. And she wasn't some caricature of pro-life arguments. She wasn't a woman who used abortion as birth control. She was

trying to get pregnant, but learned that her pregnancy would end in stillbirth and was absolutely devastated. Rather than going through the harrowing experience of delivering a stillborn baby, she wanted to have an abortion. But in order to do that, she had to pay thousands of dollars to travel out of state because so few clinics existed in Texas. This is not an unusual story. Certain places in Texas have been called abortion deserts because there are so few clinics where women can get reproductive health care.

So then women in Texas have to travel long distances to get the procedure done, which means they may incur charges for transportation, accommodations, and food. Accommodation in particular can get very pricey because in Texas there is a 24-hour pre-procedure waiting period required for women after a mandatory ultrasound. What I find particularly distressing is that this new draconian bounty system is also aimed at low-income folks because it's probably the easiest 10 grand they're ever going to make. In effect, it turns low-income people who need extra cash against low-income women looking to make responsible choices about their future. I want my government to help raise people in low-income communities, not position them to tear themselves apart. Restricting abortion access funnels women into a cycle of financial insecurity. The Turnaway Study, the largest study on women being denied access to abortions, found that women who carry an unwanted pregnancy to term have four times greater odds of

living below the federal poverty line. The study also found that carrying an unwanted pregnancy led to adverse economic outcomes like lower credit scores, increased debt, and increased instances of negative public financial records like bankruptcy or evictions. But the effects go beyond financial implications. The Turnaway study also found that women were more likely to experience serious complications from the end of pregnancy, including death, if they were denied abortions. According to the New York Times, Texas's maternal mortality rate is above the U.S. average. And by the way, the U.S. has the highest maternal death rate in the developed world. In Texas, there are more than 18 deaths per 100,000 live births. And this

disproportionately affects Black women. While Black women account for 11% of live births in Texas, they represent 31% of maternal deaths. Also, these women are more likely to stay with abusive partners because it's much more difficult to separate from a partner once a child is involved. The study also finds that a child born from an unwanted pregnancy is negatively affected as well. Children from unwanted pregnancies report feeling less bonded with their mothers than children from planned pregnancies. I've made my whole career about championing the financial rights of people who didn't grow up with the Wall Street Journal on their kitchen table. And the data on this issue is clear. When women are denied access to abortion, their financial freedom is taken away. My goal with reporting has always been to foster an open dialogue. Today, I shared with you what

I thought about this legislation, and you might disagree with me, and that's okay. This is a complicated conversation, but it's a conversation. And as I've mentioned before, we could all stand to be better listeners, myself included. So if you take the time to listen to my perspective today, thank you. But I would also love to do the same for you. So email me your thoughts at moneyrehab at NicoleLappin.com. For today's tip, you can take it straight to the bank. This issue likely does not stop at the Texas border. Even now, as you're listening

to this, policymakers are considering implementing similar legislation in other states. If you have thoughts about what you want reflected in the law, use the link in our show notes to reach out to your local representative. Or if reaching out to the government feels too daunting, reach out to the folks you talk to every day at work and see what your company's stance is and if they're backing their opinions with action. For example, Mark Benioff, the CEO of Salesforce, is helping his Texas-based employees that want to relocate due to this legislation. Or if you want to take a look at the companies that you're supporting as a customer, Lyft and Uber Leadership have committed to cover the legal fees of any of their drivers who are sued under Texas's new legislation. Like I said before, choice is power.

Having the choice over what happens to your body is power. And having the choice over which companies we support is also power. rehab team, Michelle Lanz for her development work, Catherine Law for her production and writing magic, and Brandon Dickert for his editing, engineering, and sound design. And as always, thanks to you for finally investing in yourself so that you can get it together and get it all.