It’s difficult but not impossible to estimate how states’ more restrictive abortion laws will impact women’s financial wellbeing — and the nation’s workforce. The Turnaway Study from the University of California San Francisco followed 1,000 women with unwanted pregnancies for five years. Some were able to have abortions, and others were turned away from the procedure. The main finding of the research project was that “receiving an abortion does not harm the health and wellbeing of women, but in fact, being denied an abortion results in worse financial, health and family outcomes.” Another way to see the issue is through an international lens. Countries that allow women more bodily autonomy tend to be nations that are more committed to giving women equal access to the workplace, if they so choose. On the other end of the spectrum, in countries where abortion is illegal, women are generally not encouraged to take jobs that would get in the way of being the primary childcare providers. Economists and public health experts agree that the burden of raising children is a large reason for inequities in the labor market. According to the American Journal of Public Health, women who were unable to get an abortion were three times more likely to be unemployed six months after being denied the procedure, compared with women who were able to get an abortion. An Institute for Women’s Policy Research study from 2021 on the national effect of abortion restrictions estimates that “if all state-level abortion restrictions were eliminated, 505,000 more women aged 15 to 44 would be in the labor force and that they would earn over $3 billion dollars annually, an amount that would go back into the state’s economy.” Women who are in their prime childbearing years are the most vulnerable to changes in reproductive health laws. Age discrimination can be a compounding factor for those who have children in their 30s or 40s. Women who need to take a career break during those years to raise children are much less likely to ever return to the workforce than women who do not pause their careers. As is often the case, the pain will not be shared equally among all women. “Across all demographics, women with abortion access are 2% more likely to work 40 weeks or more per year,” says Richard J. Brandenstein, a partner at FBR Law, where he specializes in New York state employment law. “This generally affects Black women more, with access to abortion increasing full-time participation in the labor market by 6.9%,” he adds, citing a 2019 Institute for Women’s Policy Research study.