Ought to the AEA Have Conferences in Canada?

Some members of the American Economics Affiliation have just lately written to the AEA to ask that it transfer its 2023 conferences away from New Orleans and its 2024 conferences away from Texas. Their said cause is that Louisiana and Texas have legal guidelines that closely prohibit abortion. They write:

These restrictions on healthcare place an undue, differential burden on younger ladies within the economics career, who’re compelled to stability the danger of needing medical care unavailable in Louisiana with their skilled obligation to attend the Annual Conferences.

My Hoover colleague John Cochrane discusses the points fairly completely.

Their petition to the AEA received me occupied with one thing else. Would these petitioners additionally advocate not having the AEA convention in Canada?

Right here’s a quote from a June 25 article at Time.com:

On common, ladies wait one to 2 weeks for an abortion in Canada and so long as 5 weeks for later-term abortion care, in response to Motion Canada.

So if the conferences have been held in Canada, the younger ladies they fear about would have a fair more durable time getting an abortion in Canada.

Right here’s one other quote from the identical story:

“Despite the fact that we now have the totally enshrined proper to this service, that doesn’t imply that it’s extensively accessible,” mentioned Kelly Bowden, director of Coverage, Advocacy and Authorities Relations at Motion Canada for Sexual Well being & Rights.

This quote fantastically states the essence of single-payer: you may have a proper to well being care, however that doesn’t imply you’ll get it. As I as soon as put it in a radio interview by which I used to be discussing Canada’s Medicare system:

Canada’s Medicare doesn’t assure that you just’ll get medical care; it ensures merely that you just’ll be capable of line up for medical care.

Now there is a silver lining, from the identical article, that the petitioners to the AEA may level to:

A lot of the clinics which have capability are in Toronto and Montreal, mentioned Joyce Arthur, government director of the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada. However it’s a lot more durable to seek out clinics in Canada’s western provinces, which means ladies in states resembling North Dakota and South Dakota — which may quickly have new restrictions — can have issue discovering companies. She mentioned it additionally may promote a system the place Canadian practitioners favor People who pay in money. (italics added.)

“We need to assist People but it surely’s troublesome as a result of we need to handle Canadians first,” Arthur mentioned. “It may lead to a two-tiered system.”

So perhaps the petitioners wouldn’t object to having the AEA meet in Canada as a result of there’s comparatively free market in medical care in Canada for many who should not Canadian residents. I’ve heard stranger issues than economists advocating free markets.