"Red America is bad for your health. If you live in a red state, your risk of getting and dying from covid-19 is higher than in blue states. On average, your life span is shorter, your chance of living in poverty higher, your educational attainment lower and your economic opportunities are reduced relative to blue-state residents.
"Meanwhile, politicians in red states have effectively told diverse workers, high-tech businesses and entrepreneurial Americans to go elsewhere. They have suppressed voting for minorities, targeted LGBTQ families, upended public education with their panic over critical race theory (even though it isn’t taught in K-12 schools) and punished corporations that don’t kowtow to discriminatory practices.
"And then came the abortion bans. Thousands, if not millions, of women of childbearing age might reconsider their residence if they want to avoid the potentially life-threatening bans — or if they simply want to be treated like competent, autonomous adults.
"But the results may well confirm that MAGA cult ideology burdens red states in a variety of ways, from decreasing life expectancy to chasing women from the workplace to causing “brain drain” as college-educated workers head for states grounded in the 21st century. If that happens, it would not be the first time the archaic social policies in the South left it struggling to keep up with the more prosperous North. At some point, voters in red states might come to realize they are losing ground to blue states."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/12/republican-state-abortion-bans-sapping-economic-growth/
