Just a bit of historical irony.
On Jan. 23, 1973, when the Supreme Court struck down laws criminalizing abortion in Roe v. Wade, President Richard M. Nixon made no public statement. But privately, newly released tapes reveal, he expressed ambivalence.
Nixon worried that greater access to abortions would foster "permissiveness," and said that "it breaks the family." But he also saw a need for abortion in some cases — like interracial pregnancies, he said.
"There are times when an abortion is necessary. I know that. When you have a black and a white," he told an aide, before adding, "Or a rape."
http://www.nytimes.com/...
If Richard Nixon had had the opportunity to shape the limits for legal abortions, we may not have had Barack Obama as president. I think that it is both ironic and shows how far our country has come over the last 30-40 years.
It's funny how history plays out.
Here was a president that thought that an interracial pregnancy could be one reason for an abortion, and I am sure he was not alone in his belief; and now we have a president from an interracial union that was elected by a majority of Americans and who is very popular.
It should be noted too that Nixon must have thought that an interracial baby was far worse than a black baby, since he only reserved abortion for the former and not the latter. So, for those who think Barack Obama is not really our first African American president, but merely our first non-white one, in Nixon's eyes, Barack Obama would have been far worse than say Jessie Jackson, as far as heritage is conerned.
The United States is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but we should all give her tips for at least being willing to change.