Comment Red America is bad for your health. If you live in a red state, your risk of getting and dying from Covid-19 is higher than in blue states. On average, your life expectancy is shorter, your chances of living in poverty are higher, your education level is lower, and your economic opportunities are less than blue state residents. Meanwhile, politicians in red states have effectively told various working, high-tech and entrepreneurial Americans to go elsewhere. They’ve suppressed voting for minorities, targeted LGBTQ families, upended public education with their panic over critical race theory (even though it’s not taught in K-12 schools), and penalized companies that don’t bow to discriminatory practices. And then came the abortion bans. Thousands, if not millions, of women of childbearing age could reconsider their residency if they want to avoid potentially life-threatening bans — or if they simply want to be treated like competent, autonomous adults. There is evidence that the reality of forced birth laws is registering among those most affected. Reuters reports: “The US Supreme Court’s decision in June to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade statewide legalization of abortion is causing some students to rethink their plans for higher education as states rush to ban or restrict abortion, according to interviews with 20 students and college counselors across the country. While the evidence is anecdotal at this point, “in its wake Roe If overturned, college counselors said abortion has been at the forefront of many conversations with clients, with some reaching the end of their dream schools.” (State colleges in blue states might want to consider offering tuition to students who want to escape the misogyny in their states.) Follow Jennifer Rubin’s viewsFollow Add Likewise, blue-state employers know they can offer workers something red-state companies can’t: the guarantee of personal physical autonomy. The New York Times reports: For companies anchored in economically vibrant conservative states like Texas, Tennessee and Georgia, the rollback of women’s rights is no longer a hypothetical scenario but an immediate challenge. It represents a potential disruption in the calculation that has made Republican-led Sun Belt states attractive to big corporations, which tend to embrace reduced taxes and regulations while treating local social policy as something of a sideshow. The Times reports that blue-state governors have begun “to portray their abortion-rights policies as a business boon, boosting the appeal of the wealthier and more progressive states that many businesses choose to call home despite their taxes.” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) told the Times that his party needs to sharpen its message, arguing that President Biden and Democrats more broadly “need to talk about this first as an issue of individual rights and freedom and second as an economic issue .” At least Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo gets it. While discussing inflation and economic growth on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” on Sunday, he explained: “Look at the participation of women in the workforce without a college degree. We have to be there for these women to take care of the children, to — you know, reproductive health is on everyone’s mind. This will hurt the economy.” No one expects MAGA governors like Greg Abbott of Texas to suddenly recognize the connection between progressive social policies and economic success. He and his fellow pro-birthers are more likely to demonize “woke” companies that want to protect workers’ reproductive rights than to review the economic implications of treating women as second-class citizens. But the results may well confirm that MAGA cult ideology is weighing on red states in a variety of ways, from lowering life expectancy to poaching women from the workplace to causing a “brain drain” as college-educated workers head towards the states of the 21st century. If that happens, it wouldn’t be the first time that archaic social policies in the South have left it struggling to keep up with the more prosperous North. At some point, voters in red states may realize they are losing ground to blue states.
