Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin has claimed the strict abortion laws recently passed in Alabama and Georgia could be beneficial toward African Americans, as he believes the previous legislation was racist and intentionally targeted people of color.
Appearing on Tucker Carlson Tonight, Bevin dismissed suggestions from those who say the new laws are systemically racist and will disproportionality affect the lives of minorities in these states.
Alabama's Republican Governor Kay Ivey recently signed new legislation that would make it a felony to have an abortion in nearly all cases, including instances of rape and incest.
Host Carlson brought up a tweet from political activist Linda Sarsour, who wrote that white people "continue to uphold the patriarchy" and are therefore responsible for the so-called "heartbeat bill" in Georgia. Carlson also pointed to comments by actress Emily Ratajkowski, who noted that states with the highest proportion of black women are currently the ones imposing stricter abortion laws.
In response, Bevin described the argument that these abortion laws are racist as "so empty."
"When you consider the fact that over 40 percent of all the abortions performed in America are the taking of young black lives...crime, accidents, cancer, disease, Aids, every other cause of death combined does not add up to the number of blacks that are killed by abortion.
"For people to come out and say that it is racial justice to be able to kill black children before they are even born is a remarkable empty argument and highly offensive to many people like myself.
"Look where these abortion clinics are established, they are in minority neighborhoods," Bevin added. "They intentionally prey upon minorities."
Carlson asked is it not a racist argument to suggest that people from poor, black neighborhoods shouldn't be able to have "a ton of kids."
"It is a remarkably racist argument," Bevin responds.
"The abortion industry intentionally targets people of color, this should be an outrage to people. But indeed, in polite company, were expected to ignore it and pretend that it's not what it is, blatant racism perpetrated on people who are defenseless."
According to the 2015 data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, non-Hispanic black women had the highest abortion rate in the U.S., at 25.1 abortions per 1,000 women who are aged 15-44 years, as well as the highest ratio at 390 abortions per 1,000 live births.
In the state of Alabama, black women accounted for 59.3 percent of the number of reported abortions, compared to 32.4 percent for white women and 5.1 percent for Hispanic.
A 2008 Guttmacher Institute report on the characteristics of abortion patients in the U.S. found that "while no group made up the majority of abortion patients, black and Hispanic women were overrepresented."
Uncommon Knowledge
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Ewan Palmer is a Newsweek News Reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on US politics, domestic policy ... Read more
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