Dear SHOE list,

In recognition of International Safe Abortion Day, Rebeca Gomez Betancourt, Miriam Bankovsky, and I are pleased to announce an upcoming webinar series sponsored by the History of Economics Society on the topic "From Contraception to Abortion in Economic Thought."

The recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization explored not only moral, ethical, and humanistic implications of legal access to abortion but also economic ones. Over 150 economists filed an amicus brief on behalf of Jackson Women’s Health arguing that a substantial body of credible research demonstrated the link between legal abortion access and improved economic outcomes for women that include increased wages, higher family incomes, greater labor force participation rates, and expanded human capital investment. Indeed, linking reproductive rights to economic wellbeing is not a new phenomenon. Indeed, the right of choice in childbearing has been understood to contribute to women’s economic independence at least since the 19th century (Wollstonecraft 1798; J.S. Mill 1869; Wicksell 1880; Perkins Gilman 1898).


We seek to stimulate the consideration of economic thinking on abortion, reproductive rights, childbearing, and population policies spanning the period of 1873 to 1973. This century began with the Comstock Act in the United States, which made it illegal to send an “obscene, lewd, and/or lascivious” materials through the mail, including contraceptive devices and information on contraception or abortion or how to obtain them; it ended with Roe v. Wade, which conferred the legal right to abortion.



We invite individuals who might be interested in developing a discussion on various formal economic arguments used to support or to constrict choice in childbearing to contact Marianne Johnson ([log in to unmask]) or Rebeca Gomez-Betancourt ([log in to unmask]). Topics could include national population and procreation policies, population economics, Malthusian economics, racist and eugenicist policies and programs, women's rights, gender economics, or the intersection of population and climate.


We invite the SHOE list to stay tuned for more specific information, dates, and presenters.


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Marianne Johnson

Distinguished Professor of Economics

College of Business

University of Wisconsin Oshkosh