Is Abortion Helping Drive the Need for Illegal Alien Labor?

A Republican committee studying the problem of illegal immigration came to an interesting conclusion: illegal immigration and the problem of abortion are linked:

A Republican-led legislative panel claims in a new report on illegal immigration that abortion is partly to blame because it is causing a shortage of American workers.

The report from the state House Special Committee on Immigration Reform also claims "liberal social welfare policies" have discouraged Americans from working and encouraged immigrants to cross the border illegally.

The statements about abortion, welfare policies and a recommendation to abolish income taxes in favor of sales taxes were inserted into the immigration report by the committee chairman, Rep. Ed Emery.

All six Democrats on the panel refused to sign the report. Some of them called the abortion assertion ridiculous and embarrassing.

All 10 Republican committee members signed the report, though one of them, Rep. Billy Pat Wright, said Monday he didn't recall it connecting abortion and illegal immigration.

Emery, who equates abortion to murder, defended the assertions.

"We hear a lot of arguments today that the reason that we can't get serious about our borders is that we are desperate for all these workers," Emery said. "You don't have to think too long. If you kill 44 million of your potential workers, it's not too surprising we would be desperate for workers."

I've written before about the "Roe effect" and how liberals may be aborting themselves into a permanent minority (obviously there's still enough of them around to win today but that could change in the future). I never thought of how the millions of abortions could be effecting the labor pool, but I don't think the committee's theory is that far off. It certainly could be reasonable to assume that abortion has deprived our work force of millions of potential employees. It's something to think about.