Last week, Planned Parenthood launched its biggest electoral effort in its history. It plans to invest $45 million to support presidential, congressional and state-level candidates in the 2020 elections who support access to abortion.
Not to be outdone, the very next day following Planned Parenthood’s announcement, the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List launched a $52 million campaign to support President Trump’s reelection bid.
The amounts represent the largest election spending in the history of both groups.
Although to achieve opposing goals, the two organizations combined will invest close to $100 million over the issue of abortion access – Planned Parenthood to maintain access, and Susan B. Anthony to restrict access.
Playing the Supply Side Game
Turning to Susan B. Anthony’s $52 million investment, remember that it isn’t really their money. Pro-life investors gave them that money with the expectation that they would get a return on it.
The expected Return on Investment (ROI), in this case, would be lives saved from abortion due to restricted access to abortion by overturning Roe versus Wade.
In other words, economically speaking, the investment dollars seek to impact the “supply side” of the issue.
What might that ROI look like?
We can make a rough estimate based on the research I referenced in yesterday’s article.
Recall from that article that research estimates overturning Roe versus Wade would result in 100,000 lives saved from abortion annually.
To keep this simple, I’m just going to use one year in my calculation.
So, $52 million divided by 100,000 lives = $520 per life saved from abortion.
How does this ROI compare with a similar investment made on the “demand side” of the issue?
Well, from my experience, Pregnancy Help Centers that are very good at persuading abortion-minded women to change their minds about getting an abortion, and choose life, can typically do that for a fully-loaded cost of about $2,000 per life saved from abortion.
From this perspective, an investment in the supply side achieves a result that is about 4X better than an investment in the demand side ($2,000/$520 = 3.85).
Case closed, right?
Not so fast.
Don’t Forget About RISK
An astute investor has to consider the “probability of success” in any investment he or she makes.
While the investment of $2,000 to save a life on the demand side is significantly more compared to the supply side investment, it is also practically guaranteed to get the return the investor seeks: a life saved from abortion.
On the other hand, the supply side investment that seeks to impact political decisions that will restrict access to abortion is highly uncertain.
If the $52 million investment did not lead to Roe versus Wade being overturned, but did lead to some smaller successes in restricting access to abortion – let’s say resulting in 10,000 lives saved instead of 100,000 lives saved – the ROI suddenly balloons from $520 per life saved to $5,200 per life saved.
Here’s the point. I’m not suggesting that pro-life investors pick either a supply side investment, or a demand side investment.
I’m recommending a balanced portfolio.
Yes, invest in supply side efforts that overturn Roe versus Wade, but understand that those investments are much more speculative, with highly uncertain outcomes.
Therefore, also invest in demand side efforts in the Pro-Life Business Industry that give you a guaranteed return if you choose the right channels, with the bonus, I might add, of knowing you took sales away from Planned Parenthood, hurting their investors’ returns.
Tomorrow, we’ll look at how much is invested annually in the Pro-Life Business Industry, and how to choose the right channels for your demand side investments.
Regards,
Brett
Investing in Pro-Life: Why Balance is Key – Brett Attebery's Diary
[…] yesterday’s article, I recommended that pro-life investors create a balanced portfolio. On the “supply […]
Investing in Pro-Life: Why Balance is Key – Brett Attebery's Diary
[…] yesterday’s article, I recommended that pro-life investors create a balanced portfolio. On the “supply […]