If you let them get a safe, legal abortion, they will probably have more children later in life, and since chances are they will be better prepared to have a family, the net effect will be MORE children.

If safe abortions are illegal, or more difficult to get legally, more women will die from botched abortions, or the children will be brought up under substandard economic conditions, or the mothers will be rendered sterile sooner. The net effect will be LESS children.

In either case, those more able to afford abortions will have more children in the long run, while those who can't will have less. And most important, those who can afford abortions will not have to pay for the abortions of those who can't, and neither will they have to spend as much of their tax dollars on the social and welfare costs of those who can't, or of their surviving babies.

It may be a harsh calculation, but someone has clearly made it.