Abortion restrictions implemented after the 2022 Dobbs decision cost the American economy more than $140 billion in lost earnings in 2025, including more than $3 billion in Alabama alone, according to a new report from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research.
The analysis, which draws on three years of data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ monthly Current Population Survey, found that abortion restrictions have significantly reduced women’s labor force participation and earnings potential in Alabama and across the country.
“Abortion restrictions are a reproductive justice and human rights issue that imposes deep, sustained economic harm year after year, with women—especially Black and Latina women—bearing the greatest burden,” the authors wrote. “As the labor market continues to slow, policies that increasingly force women onto unstable ground ultimately weaken the entire economy.”
“Those losses—amounting to billions of dollars—could otherwise support what families actually need: affordable health care, caregiving, higher wages, business growth, and new jobs that strengthen local communities and state economies,” they continued.
To calculate the economic impact of state abortion policies, the authors totaled the economic impact of severe restrictions, including total and six-week bans based on gestational duration, along with barriers to access such as waiting periods, mandated counseling and targeted regulations on abortion providers that delay or deny care. Combined with federal funding prohibitions and the absence of federal protections, the policies cost the national economy an estimated $140 billion in 2025, a $7 billion increase from IWPR’s 2024 estimate.
“These economic losses are not abstract,” the authors wrote. “They reflect the real-world effects of policies that make it harder for women to stay in school, remain in the workforce, earn higher wages, and plan for their families and futures.”
According to the report, removing barriers to reproductive health care could add nearly 325,000 women to the labor force each year, with larger increases in states with more restrictive abortion policies. In Alabama, as in Kentucky, Louisiana and Mississippi, the authors estimated women’s workforce participation rates could increase by more than 1.3 percent if the state eliminated its abortion restrictions.
Alabama also could experience as much as 1 percent annual gross domestic product growth if it expanded access to reproductive health care, according to the report. The authors estimated Alabama is losing more than $3 billion in economic activity annually because of its severe abortion restrictions.
“The evidence is clear: Abortion restrictions threaten both reproductive and economic justice by jeopardizing women’s ability to plan for their families and futures as well as fully participate in the workforce and build economic security,” the authors wrote. “They are a persistent drag on the economy and will continue to be until access to abortion is protected at the state level and nationwide.”
“As long as these restrictions are in place, layered on top of prohibitions on federal funding and the absence of federal protections, the economy will continue to absorb annual economic losses as women are pushed out of or held back in the labor force,” they added. “This limits women’s earnings, career growth, and overall economic participation. In a labor market that is stagnating, with weaker job growth each month and persistent inflation further constraining opportunities for women, abortion restrictions risk deepening the economic slowdown and increasing the costs to families and employers alike.”
