WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s appearance before a Senate committee took an unexpected and tense detour into the abortion debate Tuesday when senators questioned her about the potential impact of an abortion ban on the American economy.
Yellen said that eliminating the right to an abortion could “have very damaging effects on the economy and would set women back decades.”
Her answer drew a sharp response from Sen. Tim Scott, who said that framing abortion as a matter of the “labor force participation rate feels callous.”
To that, Yellen responded: “This is not harsh, this is the truth.”
