An Alaska Politician Believes Women Get Abortions For The Free Travel

David Eastman shakes hands with a bearded man in a cowboy hat

You might think that you’re familiar with most of the arguments against abortion, but recently a politician opened his mouth and reminded us that we can never underestimate the creativity used to bolster one’s own viewpoint.

David Eastman is a Republican state representative from Wasilla, Alaska. Speaking to the press, he shared what he thought to be an unrealized “incentive” that women see in terminating their pregnancies. Speaking to KTOO, Eastman pulled the curtain back on what he thinks the real endgame is among those who are pro-abortion rights:

“You have individuals who are in villages and are glad to be pregnant, so that they can have an abortion because there’s a free trip to Anchorage involved.”

Digging his hole deeper, he clarified that women aren’t necessarily getting knocked up intentionally for that alluring trip to an Anchorage clinic, but they’re twiddling their thumbs, waiting until the pregnancy is far enough along that the procedure will require resources that only a bigger city could provide.

“We’ve created an incentive structure where people are now incented to carry their pregnancy longer than they would otherwise and then take part in that when they wouldn’t otherwise be doing it.”

Eastman didn’t cite documented or even anecdotal examples of this alleged long con, but he “knows of specific instances” that—for one reason or another—he’s not using to support his thesis.

Of course, it’s long been thought (and much better-documented) that the travel requirements to late-stage abortion facilities have served as a deterrent, rather than an incentive, for abortions, but it would seem that Rep. Eastman sees things a bit differently than you, me, and almost everyone else.