An influential study finds that legalized abortion following Roe v. Wade accounts for a large portion of the decline in U.S. crime rates since the 1990s. But some economists are not convinced. [1]
The counterpoint here is that if you view abortion as murder (as many people in US do) then the utilitarian tradeoff is obviously balanced in the wrong direction. Whats worse, 600k murders (via abortion) or tens of thousands of general crimes (including regular murder, but mostly not murder such as burglary)?
Again, this is if you start with the assumption that abortion is wrong/murder.
Going further, if abortion is murder then doctors and pharmacists are part of a giant assembly line of baby murder and ought receive extreme penalty, such as the death sentence where available.
> All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.
-14th Amendment, United States Constitution.
Whatever you think about fetuses, they haven't been born yet.
A fun party trick is to ask the gathered crowd if they'd prefer that abortion were legal, but unnaturalized residents have no rights, or that abortion isn't legal but all rights are extended to non-citizens.
The original freakonomics chapter on the topic talks about this as well, I believe.
They said (if I'm remembering this correctly) that there is some correlation to the decline of leaded gas, but the decline in crime occurred at different times in different states- and the states the legalized abortion sooner saw drops in crime sooner.
So if it's just the leaded gas, which changed for all of the US at once, why would there be any correlation to abortion laws at all?
Again, this is if you start with the assumption that abortion is wrong/murder.