Nixon's Preference for Aborting Mixed Race Babies Hits Hard in the Age of Obama

It was January, 1973, and the U.S. Supreme Court had just ruled in Roe v. Wade that abortion was not a crime. According the New York Times, Nixon made no public statement.

Privately he told Charles Colson, with whom he was chatting in the Oval Office; their conversation picked up by the infamous secret microphones:

"There are times when an abortion is necessary. I know that. When you have a black and a white," he told Colson. It was Colson who added the words, "or rape," with which Nixon readily agreed.

So there's Nixon in audio tapes from January and February 1973--released Tuesday by the Nixon Presidential Library--showing "ambivalence" about abortion--except for miscegenation or rape. Colson and Nixon seem to equate the two.

While Nixon was expressing an opinion that was probably widespread at the time, an 11-year-old boy named Barack Obama, whose mother was white and whose father was black, was growing up, raised mostly by his white grandparents.

Comments

[RapidRay]

12:54 PM on 06/25/2009

The zeitgeist of the time was de facto segregatio­n in the North and George Wallace for President in the South. Yet this same guy made a earthshaki­ng decision to go to China.
When he was good, he was very good. When he was bad, he was horrid. -Longfello­w.

[Bonnie Mcgrath]

03:33 AM on 06/25/2009

I guess Barack showed Nixon (and Colson for that matter) a thing or two--and he is certainly having the last laugh....

[trainunderwater]

11:35 PM on 06/24/2009

It's possible, however, that Colson wasn't equating rape and interracia­l marriage. He may have simply wanted to assure that rape is protected and not wanted to disagree with his boss, Nixon. However, it's really interestin­g to think that so much has changed in such a short time period (in reference to Obama).

[Nommo]

03:56 PM on 06/24/2009

For good, bad, or indifferen­t, nothing creates far out ideas like thinking about Black people.

[whocan]

02:18 PM on 06/24/2009

you also have to know that Robert Byrd was of the same opinion in the 60s and that the founder of Planned Parenthood did so because she also wanted black babies aborted