[altroots] Fwd: Media Matters for America: Bill Bennett: "[Y]ou could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down"

We all knew that this is the way those bastards think. Interesting to=20
see one of them let his guard down.

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Bill Bennett: "...you could abort every black baby in this country, and=20=

your crime rate would go down"

Addressing a caller's suggestion that the "lost revenue from the people=20=

who have been aborted in the last 30 years" would be enough to preserve=20=

Social Security's solvency, radio host and former Reagan administration=20=

Secretary of Education Bill Bennett dismissed such "far-reaching,=20
extensive extrapolations" by declaring that if "you wanted to reduce=20
crime ... if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black=20
baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down." Bennett=20
conceded that aborting all African-American babies "would be an=20
impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible thing to do," then=20
added again, "but the crime rate would go down."

Bennett's remark was apparently inspired by the claim that legalized=20
abortion has reduced crime rates, which was posited in the book=20
Freakonomics (William Morrow, May 2005) by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen=20=

J. Dubner. But Levitt and Dubner argued that aborted fetuses would have=20=

been more likely to grow up poor and in single-parent or teenage-parent=20=

households and therefore more likely to commit crimes; they did not put=20=

forth Bennett's race-based argument.

 =46rom the September 28 broadcast of Salem Radio Network's Bill =
Bennett's=20
Morning in America:
CALLER: I noticed the national media, you know, they talk a lot about=20
the loss of revenue, or the inability of the government to fund Social=20=

Security, and I was curious, and I've read articles in recent months=20
here, that the abortions that have happened since Roe v. Wade, the lost=20=

revenue from the people who have been aborted in the last 30-something=20=

years, could fund Social Security as we know it today. And the media=20
just doesn't -- never touches this at all.

BENNETT: Assuming they're all productive citizens?

CALLER: Assuming that they are. Even if only a portion of them were, it=20=

would be an enormous amount of revenue.

BENNETT: Maybe, maybe, but we don't know what the costs would be, too.=20=

I think as -- abortion disproportionately occur among single women? No.

CALLER: I don't know the exact statistics, but quite a bit are, yeah.

BENNETT: All right, well, I mean, I just don't know. I would not argue=20=

for the pro-life position based on this, because you don't know. I=20
mean, it cuts both -- you know, one of the arguments in this book=20
Freakonomics that they make is that the declining crime rate, you know,=20=

they deal with this hypothesis, that one of the reasons crime is down=20
is that abortion is up. Well --

CALLER: Well, I don't think that statistic is accurate.

BENNETT: Well, I don't think it is either, I don't think it is either,=20=

because first of all, there is just too much that you don't know. But I=20=

do know that it's true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could --=20=

if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in=20
this country, and your crime rate would go down. That would be an=20
impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your=20=

crime rate would go down. So these far-out, these far-reaching,=20
extensive extrapolations are, I think, tricky.=A0=A0 Bill Bennett's =
Morning=20
in America airs on approximately 115 radio stations with an estimated=20
weekly audience of 1.25 million listeners.=A0=A0

=97 A.S.

Posted to the web on Wednesday September 28, 2005 at=A0=A03:09 PM EST
Copyright =A9 2004 Media Matters for America. All rights reserved.

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