Nixon Excuses Interracial Abortions

On June 23, the New York Times published an article titled "On Nixon Tapes, Ambivalence Over Abortion, Not Watergate." While many of the issues discussed in the article, from Watergate to Vietnam, are very interesting and important to foreign and domestic policy, the one thing that I was struck by in the article were the three short paragraphs at the beginning of the article where Nixon discussed Roe v. Wade and abortion.

Not only did Nixon think that abortion encouraged "permisiveness" and that "it breaks the family," but he also had some interesting views for cases that would permit abortions. Nixon said, "There are times when an abortion is necessary. I know that. When you have a black and a white," only later adding, "Or a rape." Apparently interracial pregnancies are just as bad as pregnancies caused by rape, according to Nixon, if not worse, because the case of rape was only added on later.