I have never understood how some folks say that they are fiscal conservatives who do not care about social issues. To say that one is a fiscal conservative and a social liberal is contradictory, as you cannot truly be one without the other. This principle is nowhere better illustrated than examining the link between abortion and the coming economic tsunami of unfunded entitlement mandates. The coming generational debt crisis was, in no small part, created by a death crisis that has preceded it in this country.

Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote in “Letter From Birmingham Jail” that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” This statement is one of the most powerful writings on natural law in modern American literature, written on scraps of toilet paper in a jail cell. It expresses the timeless truth that, if the rights of any member of society are disregarded, then the rights of all are diminished. This was certainly true during Dr. King’s struggle for civil rights for all Americans, and it remains true to this day with regard to abortion.

Abortion advocates, who ultimately paved the way for Roe vs. Wade, hit their high water mark in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The argument they made in favor of abortion was that the unborn baby was just a blob of tissue and “not really a person.” Life was not revered, and the rights and privileges of some were elevated above the unborn baby’s. This culture of death created out of convenience now not only threatens the lives of the unborn, but undermines the quality of life for all Americans. Because of this holocaust of abortion 57 million American babies have been aborted, which has immeasurably impacted our nation’s culture and economy.

Of the 57 million Americans who have died since 1973 through abortion, over 12 million of those people would be in the economy and workforce today. This means that, had Roe vs. Wade not been decided in the favor of abortion, there would be over ten million more Americans working, paying taxes, and bankrolling programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Since 57% of all federal spending is related to these three programs, it is fair to say that our national debt has exploded, in no small part, as a consequence of abortion. Our nation’s debt crisis was, indeed, preceded by a death crisis.

Policymakers are now confronted with the difficult decision of trying to overhaul entitlement programs because our birthrate is unable to keep pace with our current population, which puts pressure on social programs that are typically geared toward older individuals. Thus, the sickeningly sad irony of the culture of death is that it’s early champions in the 1960’s and ’70’s are now among the older Americans who are experiencing economic consequences caused in part by abortion. In addition, this entitlement debt tsunami threatens the very solvency of our nation and economic prosperity for future generations.

If we are going to rebuild our nation’s fiscal health, we must restore our moral sanity with regard to the sanctity of life. The ongoing truth of failing entitlement programs is that abortion undermines their future fiscal solvency. We must remember that societies that kill their children, kill their future. We must reform our entitlement programs to protect our nation’s fiscal future, and protect future beneficiaries, but we must also end the holocaust of abortion that undermines our moral strength and, as a result, jeopardizes our financial strength as well.