Abortion and Market Failure Theory by John Cobin, Ph.D.
A February 1998 Liberty poll found that 43% of respondents agreed with the proposition: "abortion is wrong." Thus, we might conclude that pro-life sentiment exists within a substantial minority of classical liberals. Being one scholar within that minority, I would like to offer an explanation for this seemingly anomalous tendency, showing why it is consistent with classically liberal principles. Then I propose to embellish the notion by an economic analysis that might well be agreeable to people on both sides of the abortion issue. Indeed, I argue that the lion's share of abortions are the result of distortions caused by government failures, myopic intervention, and policies that facilitate deleterious rent seeking.
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