Rutgers University Study Shows

"Family Cap" Increases Abortions

A report coming out of New Jersey supports the fears of pro-lifers that abortions will increase if financial assistance is denied for children born to women who already have a child receiving public assistance.

Commissioned by the New Jersey Department of Human Services, the $1 million study concluded that the so-called "family cap" policy appears to have resulted in an increase of about 240 abortions per year among welfare recipients. Adding further weight to the findings of the report is that while the abortion rate increased for women on public assistance, the abortion rate declined both for the state and for the nation as a whole.

Conducted by a team of researchers at Rutgers University, the actual report was submitted to the Department of Human Services last December but did not become public until early June when newspapers obtained a copy.

The family cap was passed in 1992 during the administration of then-Gov. James Florio under a federal waiver that allowed the state to conduct experiments testing various changes in its welfare laws. The cap took effect the following year.

NRLC's state affiliate opposed the family cap legislation, which staunchly pro-abortion Gov. Christine Todd Whitman has retained as part of her own new welfare plan. On the federal level, National Right to Life vigorously and successfully opposed an attempt in 1996 to mandate that states deny Aid to Families With Dependent Children (AFDC) benefits for children born to mothers already receiving AFDC benefits for another child.

The Rutgers report said that the family cap "does appear to exert a small but non-trivial effect on abortion rates, adding about 240 abortions per year over what would be expected due to trend and population composition changes." In 1996, the last year for which statistics are available, there were 31,860 abortions in New Jersey.

The Department of Human Services sent a letter on May 14 to the Rutgers team criticizing the methodology and saying the document should be labeled a draft. According to Time magazine, the researchers are reviewing the study but "don't expect the results to change."

New Jersey was the first state in the nation to deny financial benefits to children born to mothers receiving public assistance. Although exact figures are not available, between 20 and 22 other states have since adopted similar policies.