Despite current pressure to sell abortion pills, retailers will have greater benefits in the long run if they resist
Editor's note: The following is the transcript of the August 20, 2024, broadcast of The World and Everything in It from WORLD Radio, hosted by Mryna Brown and Nick Eicher. The broadcast was set against pro-abortion protests at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, and discussed the prospect of retail pharmacies selling mifepristone from a financial standpoint with WORLD Opinions Commentator Jerry Bowyer.
(WORLD) Demonstrators in Chicago dressed as the abortion pill combo misoprostol and mifepristone, a costume that makes the wearers appear as walking tablets.
Meanwhile, a local Planned Parenthood affiliate offered vasectomies and abortion pills for free yesterday and today in honor of the Democratic Convention. Turns out interest was so great that the mobile clinic was all booked up. No appointments left.
BROWN: That’s Chicago. Across the country, though, major retailers are facing pressure to offer chemical abortion in their communities. WORLD Opinions Commentator Jerry Bowyer now on a method of market pushback.
JERRY BOWYER: Last week, I joined a coalition of investors and asset managers who sent a letter urging Costco, Walmart, Kroger, and other pharmacies to think long and hard before caving in to pressure tactics urging them to sell the abortion drug mifepristone. Chief among the pressure groups is New York City’s pension plan and its comptroller, Brad Lander, who has been using the assets of the city’s pensioners to cajole the companies to sell the controversial and risky pill.
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According to Lander, investor “concerns include the company’s responsiveness to a growing market opportunity, its mitigation of potential reputational risks, and its commitment to maximizing sales and long-term shareholder value.” What investors is he talking about? All the pressure to sell the drug is coming from political actors, not financial ones. That’s because the business case for the drug is pitifully weak, and the case against it is strong.
Tweet This: The pressure to sell mifepristone is political, not financial. The business case for it is pitifully weak and the case against it is strong.
Let’s do a quick back-of-the-envelope calculation. Thanks to Walter Billingsley, the chief financial officer of the American Family Association, for providing the numbers. Mifepristone sells for roughly $200. That is, tragically, a one-time thing. Costco averages roughly $3,000 in revenue per customer per year. The average household is 2.5 people. So, for a Costco member, the average per capita spending is roughly $1,200. Over 10 years, that’s $12,000. The grim mathematics of abortifacients show that Costco can monetize one death for $200, or it can hope to enjoy revenues on $12,000 of sales over 10 years, or $7,000 in present value.
In short, life is more financially valuable than death. How could it be otherwise? The data will vary somewhat from company to company, but the principle holds. A company can sell the stuff of death once or it can sell the stuff of life for many years: diapers, Pedialyte, Vicks VapoRub, bigger diapers, antibiotics for toddlers’ ear infections, shoes, vaccinations, Halloween outfits, candy, Band-Aids, bigger shoes, Wiffle balls and bats, still bigger shoes, and on it goes. It doesn’t take a degree in finance to know that $7,000 in revenue is better than $200 in revenue, even if New York City’s chief financial officer fails to grasp it.
Tweet This: Life is more financially valuable than death. How could it be otherwise?
Retailers need to take a moment and think hard before stepping into the most divisive issue of our time. They need to consider the reality that the drug is entirely outlawed in many states and partly outlawed in others. And remember, mifepristone’s availability in the retail setting was rushed through the Food and Drug Administration’s approval process by the Biden administration despite serious health risks and so far has survived a Supreme Court challenge only on the technicality of legal standing, not the substance of the issue.
Tweet This: Retailers need to take a moment and think hard before stepping into the most divisive issue of our time (abortion).
And the bottom line is that capitalist economies need people. People produce goods and services and people purchase goods and services. The current labor shortage, looming pension crises, and lackluster growth testify to the reality that family formation and childrearing are the only proper foundations on which the capitalistic system can function.
Editor's note: Jerry Bowyer is the chief economist of Vident Financial, editor of Townhall Finance, editor of the business channel of The Christian Post, host of the Meeting of Minds With Jerry Bowyer podcast, president of Bowyer Research, and author of The Maker Versus the Takers: What Jesus Really Said About Social Justice and Economics. He is also a resident economist with Kingdom Advisors, serves on the editorial board of Salem Communications, and is a senior fellow in financial economics at the Center for Cultural Leadership. This article originally appeared in the August 20, 2024, issue of WORLD Magazine. Reprinted with permission. Copyright © 2024 WORLD News Group. All rights reserved. To read more Biblically objective journalism that informs, educates, and inspires, call (828) 435-2981 or visit wng.org.
