June 23, 2009

Nixon On Abortion

From the New York Times:
On Jan. 23, 1973, when the Supreme Court struck down laws criminalizing abortion in Roe v. Wade, President Richard M. Nixon made no public statement. But privately, newly released tapes reveal, he expressed ambivalence.

Nixon worried that greater access to abortions would foster “permissiveness,” and said that “it breaks the family.” But he also saw a need for abortion in some cases — like interracial pregnancies, he said.

“There are times when an abortion is necessary. I know that. When you have a black and a white,” he told an aide, before adding, “Or a rape.”
No no no. The Times gets it wrong. Nixon didn't say there was a need for an abortion in the case of an interracial pregnancy; he said it was necessary in the case of an interracial pregnancy. Unless he was mis-speaking (and let's be fair - he's not here to explain himself), Richard Nixon just said that every interracial pregnancy had to be aborted.

One more reason to love Tricky Dick, eh?

3 comments:

V Sobol said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
V Sobol said...

Not surprising, unfortunately. He's shown a lot of racist tendancies before.

http://morningjoecritic.blogspot.com/

Dave said...

Tricky Dick was paranoid, a racist, and an anti-Semite. The truly sad thing is that in spite of all that, he was still a better President than George W. Bush.