WELFARE "CAPS" INCREASE ABORTIONS,
STUDY SHOWS

A new study of New Jersey's controversial "family cap" program has borne out warnings that there would be an increase in the number of abortions among women receiving assistance if benefits were denied for children born while their mothers are receiving welfare.

According to a $1 million study undertaken by researchers from Rutgers University, between 1992 and 1996 there were 1,429 abortions among welfare recipients that can be attributed to the family cap. Without the cap a woman on welfare would receive about $64 a month for an additional child.

Anne Perone, Esq., president of New Jersey Committee for Life, told NRL News that the study "proves what we have always suspected: welfare caps are

forcing women who want their children to have abortions." She also noted that defenders of the cap "will try to minimize the deaths of more than 350 babies per year. This kind of logic is outrageous since every child is precious." Adding to the lethal mix, Perone said, is that New Jersey pays for abortions of women receiving welfare. In 1991 New Jersey was the first state to pass a law that would deny additional benefits, under a federal waiver that allowed states to try alternative programs. At least 20 other states have followed suit, which is one reason the outcome has been so closely watched.

Last June, as preliminary results leaked out suggesting the policy increased the annual number of abortions by about 240, pro-abortion Gov. Christine Todd Whitman said she would review the policy if she was shown "definitive evidence that the family cap has caused an increase in the number of children in poverty or that it leads to increased abortion."

However, the day before the report was officially unveiled her spokesman told the New Jersey Star Ledger that taking another look "doesn't mean change the policy." The next day, in saying the policy was here to stay, Whitman cited among other things a decrease of 14,000 in the number of babies born to mothers on welfare.

"The policy is not about abortion," she said, but "personal responsibility." Others in her administration argued that while there was an initial "spike" in the number of abortions, women subsequently "adjusted" to the policy and by 1996 the rate of abortion was now the same as it was in 1992.

Beyond the brute fact that 1,429 babies lost their lives, critics also pointed out other problems. For example, in an interview with the Washington Times, pro-life champion Chris Smith (R-NJ) asked, "Why is it good" merely to go back to 1992 abortion rates when abortion rates have been dropping around the nation?

Furthermore, in that vein, when the study began abortion rates for women on welfare were about six times higher than those in the general population, according to the research. By the end of 1996, however, the abortion rate "averaged close to eight times higher," according to the Associated Press.

In September a bipartisan group of New Jersey legislators introduced legislation to repeal the law.

The Federal welfare reform legislation that passed August 22, 1996, made the family cap an option for all states. Previously, states needed to obtain a waiver from the federal government.