Linking abortion to drop in crime offensive (BARF ALERT)

Chicago Sun-Times ^ | October 2, 2005 | MARY MITCHELL SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST

[Chi-townChief]

Is William Bennett, the former education secretary, a racist for arguing hypothetically that "aborting every black baby in this country" would reduce the crime rate, even though he added that such a thing would be "morally reprehensible?"

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) apparently thinks so, U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) obviously thinks so, and the minority leader in the House, Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), definitely thinks so.

"What could possibly have possessed Secretary Bennett to say those words, especially at this time?" Pelosi wondered to CNN. "What could he possibly have been thinking?"

Before I answer my own question, let's consider the root of Bennett's comment.

Apparently Bennett based his ill-chosen hypothesis on Freakonomics, a provocative book written by Steve Levitt, a University of Chicago economics professor, and journalist Stephen Dubner. The New York Times best seller is being touted as a "must read," especially to those of us who ran screaming from economics class.

Besides looking at situations like parenting and drug dealing, Levitt offered up an unseemly theory about why crime has fallen so dramatically in this country. Levitt was interviewed recently by Ed Gordon, the host of NPR Radio's "News & Notes," where Gordon posed the question this way:

"Let me ask you about the impact of Roe vs. Wade on violent crime."

Notice he didn't say, let me ask you about the impact of Roe vs. Wade on black criminals. Gordon, the African-American host of a radio program that targets blacks, didn't even mention the word black.

Levitt responded that since "abortion was legalized in 1973, about one in four pregnancies in the U.S. ends in abortion."

Horrible to contemplate

By the way, that's a shocking number of abortions, considering how easy it is to get contraceptives.

"After legalized abortion, there were fewer unwanted children being born," Levitt argued. "There are fewer unwanted children. When they grew up to reach their peak crime ages, they just weren't there to do the crime. And so it looks like about a third of this decline in crime that we saw in the '90s I believe can be attributed to the legalization of abortion," Levitt told Gordon.

That supposition is horrible enough to contemplate.

But Bennett took it a step further and said what a lot of white people think -- that it is poor black people who were responsible for America's crime wave.

The media has done such a good job of perpetuating the myth that crime is a "black urban thing," that when white kids in rural areas started shooting up schools, white America went into shock.

White people who think like Bennett never consider who actually drives violent crime. If they did, they would have to look at members of their own racial group. While blacks and Hispanics may be filling up the prisons for being low-level drug dealers and are killing each other over drug turf, the Kate Mosses of the world are driving the trade.

Bennett not worth the bother

Levitt, however, is the expert in this area. He used his blog Friday to address the Bennett brouhaha:

"Race is not in any way central to our arguments about abortion and crime," Levitt wrote. "[O]nce you control for income, the likelihood of growing up in a female-headed household, having a teenage mother, and how urban the environment is, the importance of race disappears for all crimes except homicide. (The homicide gap is partly explained by crack markets).

"In other words, for most crimes a white person and a black person who grow up next door to each other with similar incomes and the same family structure would be predicted to have the same crime involvement," he wrote.

Levitt also knocked Bennett for "saying that he doesn't believe our abortion-crime hypothesis but then revealing that he does believe it with his comments about black babies."

On Friday, the White House noted that Bennett's comments were "inappropriate."

Over the next few days, Democrats will hound Bennett for an apology even though the initial quotes attributed to the talk show host were taken out of context. But as far as I'm concerned, Bennett's not worth the bother. What Bennett believes shouldn't matter to people who reject his conservative agenda.

I'm more concerned that Levitt wasn't challenged with this level of outrage for linking the drop in crime to the abortion of "unwanted" children. In our current politically correct environment, words like "unwanted," "urban," "female-headed" and "teenage pregnancy" have become code for low-income African Americans.

For sure, I think Bennett's comments were disgusting.

But Levitt's arrogance in convincing others we can predict another's fate before birth based on economics frightens -- and offends me -- even more.

Bennett's comments were not so much racist as they were ignorant.

mailto:marym@suntimes.com

[Chi-townChief]

It's interesting how close Ms. Mitchell gets to the anti-abortion side of the argument (if I recall, Brother Jesse once said something to the effect of abortion is the "genocide of our people") before she deftly dances away.

[varyouga]

Abortion: The chief killer of the democRATic party.

[GOPologist]

Violent crimes are least committed in those states where guns are allowed to be legally carried. Nothing to do with abortion.

I never read this statistic in the media. I wonder why not?

[shibumi]

Funny, I always thought that abortion reduced the crime rate by keeping all the murderers busy working in the clinics.

[Condor51]

"The media has done such a good job of perpetuating the myth that crime is a "black urban thing," that when white kids in rural areas started shooting up schools, white America went into shock.

Uh-huh, right Mary.
Black urban crime is a "myth". And apparently what 'little crime' there is, its definitely not violent crime either.

I guess that's why METAL DETECTORS were installed FIRST in all 'urban schools' - because of a "myth".

[upchuck]

Thank you for NOT excerpting this article.

[adorno]

It's interesting how close Ms. Mitchell gets to the anti-abortion side of the argument (if I recall, Brother Jesse once said something to the effect of abortion is the "genocide of our people") before she deftly dances away.

Interesting how it would be called "genocide" by the democrats when the issue is referring to aborting black unborns.

Down in Tampa FL, Dan Ruth, a Tampa Tribune columnist, who also hosts a three hour radio show on Saturdays on WFLA radio, also was talking about the Bill Bennet comments regarding the abortion of black babies and how that could reduce crime rate.

While commenting on the Bennet comments, Dan mentioned that what Bennet was suggesting was a genocide against black babies. Amazing that when it comes to aborting black babies, Dan Ruth would refer to that as suggesting 'genocide against black babies", but, when it comes to aborting babies in general, Dan would call that a "choice".

[shibumi]

Harry Reid, Bobby Rush, Nancy Pelosi and Mary Mitchell were probably busy at a "Save the Spotted Owl from Nuclear Whales" rally the day they covered this in logic class, so for their benefit, here's the concept:

Reductio Ad Absurdum

(Also covered in English Lit class in Swift's "A Modest Proposal")

[GOPJ]

Freakonomics, the book written by two liberals, (one who writes for the New York Times) is the book that made the connection. Bennett played his comment off what the book said.

[anton]

I'm confused (again). Are facts prohibited now also, along with unpopular opinion? Would it be wrong to state that a black male is 8-13 times more likely to murder someone than a white male? Or 16 times more likely to injure a person he is robbing? Would be wrong to state that black women abort about 40 percent of the aborted babies, even though they are less than one eighth of the population?

[GOPJ]

...concerned that Levitt wasn't challenged with this level of outrage for linking the drop in crime to the abortion of "unwanted" children. In our current politically correct environment, words like "unwanted," "urban," "female-headed" and "teenage pregnancy" have become code for low-income African Americans.

A column in one of our local papers a few months ago quoted the statistic that 95% of homicides were committed by the 6% of the population that is both black and male.

It's time for an honest discussion of policies that create dependency and crime. The black and white underclass are being reinforced by bad choices made by past liberal policy.

[AFPhys]

"A column in one of our local papers a few months ago quoted the statistic that 95% of homicides were committed by the 6% of the population that is both black and male.

"It's time for an honest discussion of policies that create dependency and crime. The black and white underclass are being reinforced by bad choices made by past liberal policy."
--->

If this is true, it bears repeating.
`

[theBuckwheat]

The flap over Bennett's comment is really because of liberals recoiling at the implications of their own policies.

If it is true that blacks made up 45.1% of the nation's prison population (2002 figure), then it logically follows that reducing the number of blacks is a way of reducing the number of black criminals, as absurd and immoral that suggestion is to me.

>>
For example, in 1995, according the Sentencing Project in Washington, D.C., about one-third of all black males between the ages of 20 and 29 were, on any given day, either in jail, prison, on probation or on parole, a percentage that was up from 25 percent 1990. In some cities these percentages were even higher, such as Washington, D.C., where the figure was about 60 percent.
<<

from: http://www.blackcommentator.com/98/98_prisons_1.html

If I was Margaret Sanger, I could argue we need to open clinics in urban areas, hand out contraceptives and offer abortion services in an attempt to reduce the numbers of people she and her fellow advocates of eugenics considered unworthy of having children.

(see: The Negro Project, Margaret Sanger's Eugenic Plan for Black Americans at http://www.citizenreviewonline.org/special_issues/population/the_negro_project.htm)

Of course, libs want to be judged on their intent, not on the effect of their policies. They only want the best for the few blacks who survive those policies.

It is telling that the MSM finds it very difficult to be honest with the totality of Bennett's comments. On Friday morning, the soundbite on NPR of Bennett stopped just before he said that advocating such abortions was absurd.

Liberalism is really a mental disorder.

[nickcarraway]

I agree, it is offensive.

[Jim_Curtis]

While blacks and Hispanics may be filling up the prisons for being low-level drug dealers and are killing each other over drug turf, the Kate Mosses of the world are driving the trade.

I remember when it used to be the fault of whites for addicting Chinese to heroin. I guess the new thinking is that those addicted Chinese were driving the market.

[moog]

It probably wasn't the best thing to say to say the least. Someone like Bennett should know better. It appears that he's "promoting" abortion too--hehe.

[Swiss]

"In other words, for most crimes a white person and a black person who grow up next door to each other with similar incomes and the same family structure would be predicted to have the same crime involvement,"

Pretty simple statement to prove, find white communities with the same income level and family structure as black communities and compare them.

Or lets compare Indians and Blacks, you can't get as poor as some of our Indian Reservations.

[manwiththehands]

She let's Bill Bennett off the hook by claiming he is simply "ignorant" and not "racist". Then she says:

... words like "unwanted," "urban," "female-headed" and "teenage pregnancy" have become code for low-income African Americans.

Says who, Ms. Mitchell? You? Isn't that racist? (scoff)

[jordan8]

Once again, Bennett's obvious point is that you can't justify abortion or other actions simply because they might achieve positive results, e.g. a reduction in crime. He's actually hoist himself on the petard of political correctness here. His selection of aborting blacks is an example of the politically correct mode of thought that is obsessed with "racism" against minorities, that nothing is really bad until you can make it about white racism*, which is why he didn't say aborting whites or aborting babies, period. It's an example of how the values of the establishment permeate this society, particularly Bill Bennett's stratum and that of the chattering classes. The objections to this speech are nothing more than cheap demagoguery, the Jim Snow institutionalized racism that says whites aren't allowed to say anything about minorities that doesn't come from the approved and worshipful script. Expect Bill to cave within 24 hrs. *Responses to hurricanes, for example.

Bennett got in trouble not because he's a black hating bigot but because he's a lifelong collaborator in white-hating political correctness. He understands that if he simply said you could make the argument that abortions reduces crime most of the population would say so what, so he made it about racism, he said it would "That would be an impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible thing to do" and the implication is BECAUSE IT WOULD BE RACIST.

the importance of race disappears for all crimes except homicide.

It doesn't disappear for homicide because homicide is the one crime we liberals can't hide, can't lie about. Homicide is a bell weather crime because of the indisputable reality of the corpse.

[TigersEye]

Today is LifeChain Sunday nationwide.

Abortion is not about saving women’s lives!

Total Abortions since 1973

46,023,191

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Why the drop after 1960? (in deaths of women from illegal abortions)

The reasons were new and better antibiotics, better surgery and the establishment of intensive care units in hospitals. This was in the face of a rising population. Between 1967 and 1970 sixteen states legalized abortion. In most it was limited, only for rape, incest and severe fetal handicap (life of mother was legal in all states). There were two big exceptions — California in 1967, and New York in 1970 allowed abortion on demand. Now look at the chart carefully.

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Abortion Statistics - Decision to Have an Abortion (U.S.)

· 25.5% of women deciding to have an abortion want to postpone childbearing

· 21.3% of women cannot afford a baby

· 14.1% of women have a relationship issue or their partner does not want a child

· 12.2% of women are too young (their parents or others object to the pregnancy)

· 10.8% of women feel a child will disrupt their education or career

· 7.9% of women want no (more) children

· 3.3% of women have an abortion due to a risk to fetal health

2.8% of women have an abortion due to a risk to maternal health

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So how many women’s lives have been saved by abortion?

Only about 3% of abortions since 1972 were reported to be “due to a risk to maternal health.” A reasonable person would recognize that not all of those cases represent a lethal risk. But let’s say they did. That means that nearly 45 million fetuses were butchered to save the lives of about 1.3 million women. Or put another way; 35 babies are killed to save each woman.

Abortion was legal in all 50 states prior to Roe v. Wade in cases of danger to the life of the woman.