Anti-choicers like to talk a big game about Christian love and compassion, but it’s all very clearly bullshit, as true compassion is completely incompatible with forced childbirth. But because “Christian love” is the cover story, you don’t often see them just admitting up front that they really see women as little more than factories that exist to make babies. And, as women are factories, their opinion on how they are used matter no more than the opinion of a widget machine’s on the question of how many widgets you program it to make. But leave it to Sam Brownback, whose completely unjustified massive ego allows him to just speak off the cuff, to go ahead and come out with it by claiming that “economic growth” is “entwined” with a forced childbirth agenda. As David Edwards at Raw Story reports:

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“It’s working,” Brownback agreed. “What we want Kansas to be is the best place in America to do two things: raise a family, grow a small business.” “And we are moving that way,” he continued. “I’ve signed 10 pro-life bills, there’s another one moving through the legislature on ending dismemberment abortions, where you actually dismember the child to abort it. It’s passed the state Senate, it’s going to pass the House, and I’m going to sign it.” Brownback said that he had also taken “all small business taxes off of small business income, and that’s seen a record number of small business filings, tax filers coming into the state of Kansas, job creation.” According to Perkins, Kansas was proving that a “pro-family agenda” was “entwined” with economic growth. “They really support each other,” Brownback agreed. “Frankly, one of the big problems we have in the country is we’re not forming enough families. And that is hurting our economic work and hurting our economic projection because the best place for that child is within a strong family. And if you’re not forming a family unit, you are also slowing your economic performance.”

The notion that your “economic performance” is improved by having children is so ridiculous that it hardly needs debunking. Child labor is, thankfully, illegal. Kids are basically a money pit, to be honest, and everyone knows it. Kids cost you money. They don’t make you money. That’s wishful thinking to the extreme. Of course, this is coming from the same man who thinks you can force people to form “a family unit” by forcing childbirth on them, as if a denied abortion leads straight to a blissful marriage, a picket fence, 2.5 kids and a dog. Not only does he think he knows better than women what their family/economic prospects are, he seems to believe that an easily debunked fantasy has more validity than a woman’s direct experiences of her own life. Of course, he is also lying through his teeth about Kansas’s economic success, as David points out. He either is living in Oz and only pops into Kansas to do interviews, or this Good Christian® is a big, fat liar. (My money is on the latter.)

But let’s be honest here. Brownback has never given a single moment’s thought in his entire life to women’s needs, economic or otherwise. That makes about as much sense to him as wondering about the feelings of your toaster oven. He simply sees women as a means of production and doesn’t hesitate to talk about women that way.

He’s also working on the ridiculous assumption that population growth automatically means economic growth. That’s based on the assumption that quantity is better than quality, that it’s better to have a bunch of people you only invest in a little rather than a few people you invest in a lot. That is only true if your main concern is driving down wages by having a bunch of people competing for a few underpaid jobs. But if you want actual economic growth, you’re better off being able to invest in individuals. Real economic growth comes from giving people education and skills they need in order to be innovators, something that’s a lot easier to do if you’re not spreading resources thin.

Women know this, which is why most women are interested in limiting their family size. Feeding, housing and educating children is a lot easier with one or two than a dozen. That’s why Brownback is leaning on force: Because he doesn’t care what good for you, your kids, or the economy. But he does want his rich business friends to have a steady stream of cheap labor.