Reduce Crime with Mandatory Abortion for Neocons

On September 28th, 2005, radio host Bill Bennett made the following statement:

�...I do know that it's true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could -- if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down. That would be an impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down. So these far-out, these far-reaching, extensive extrapolations are, I think, tricky.�

This is a letter in response. For a partial transcript of the caller and Bennett's response, see the bottom of this article here.

Dear Mr. Bennett,

You said that if we aborted all black babies, the crime rate would go down.

But I assume you are only referring to blue-collar crimes, the ones committed by poor people because they have little hope to cleave to in their desperate situations. Most of the black population is poor, so I assume you are not suggesting that black people in general have an innate tendency toward criminal behavior.

Well, like you, I am interested in reducing the crime rate. However, while you seem interested in diminishing only blue-collar crime, I would like to diminish white-collar crime - - the father of blue-collar crime.

Just think:

If we aborted all babies of Halliburton employees, that would effectively diminish the crime of war profiteering. No longer would there be miscreants populating large corporations who are eagerly hungry to financially benefit from death and destruction.

If we aborted all babies of employees at Enron and other likeminded companies, that would reduce the crime of egregiously inflating profits in order to swindle people out of their pensions.

If we aborted all babies of Christian fundamentalists, that would effectively diminish the crime of imposing a theocratic government onto a constitutionally secular one. No longer would there be religious lunatics forcing us to digest insulting "intelligent design" blather masquerading as science in our actual science classrooms, pushing prayer in schools, or preaching maliciously ambiguous Culture of Life agendas, such as calling for the banning of abortion while calling for the expansion of the death penalty and racist wars.

If we aborted all babies of neo-conservatives politicians, that would effectively diminish war crimes, as we wouldn't have any more people to recklessly ignite wars which are cooked up on false pretexts, which gleefully sanction the use of torture, and which crassly detain people without giving them their legal rights.

And, finally, if we aborted all babies of Wall Street employees, that would effectively diminish the crime of pillaging Social Security funds for use in stock market gambling.

In short, I propose we abort all babies of rich white (and some token black) neo-conservative thugs. If we do so, our overall crime rate will diminish substantially. Why abort poor black babies when you can abort rich white ones instead?

Of course, you might would consider my proposal morally reprehensible, but I would consider it common sense.

Sincerely,

Alison Ross
President and CEO
Citizens Against Neo-Con-Victs

PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT OF RADIO SHOW FOR CONTEXT:

CALLER: I noticed the national media, you know, they talk a lot about the loss of revenue, or the inability of the government to fund Social Security, and I was curious, and I've read articles in recent months here, that the abortions that have happened since Roe v. Wade, the lost revenue from the people who have been aborted in the last 30-something years, could fund Social Security as we know it today. And the media 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 would be an enormous amount of revenue.
BENNETT: Maybe, maybe, but we don't know what the costs would be, too. 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 for the pro-life position based on this, because you don't know. I mean, it cuts both -- you know, one of the arguments in this book Freakonomics that they make is that the declining crime rate, you know, they deal with this hypothesis, that one of the reasons crime is down 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, because first of all, there is just too much that you don't know. But I do know that it's true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could -- if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down. That would be an impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down. So these far-out, these far-reaching, extensive extrapolations are, I think, tricky.

The caller was concerned about abortion in the context of population loss.

Nowhere in his comments were racial overtones discernable. Bill then took it upon himself to inject the stereotype of blacks being pre-disposed to criminal activity.

While it is true that black males have a much higher rate of incarceration and commit more violent crimes than their white counterparts, it is extremely important to find the reasons for said behavior as opposed to assuming a racial component.

Thanks to www.blogcritics.org for the transcript and brief commentary at the bottom.

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Alison Ross is a passionate but peeved advocate for the poor and homeless. She deplores American fascism but adores American liberalism. She has had her sociopolitical rants showcased in Democracy Means You, Exquisite Corpse, Democratic Underground, Muse Apprentice Guild, When Falls the Coliseum, and Creative Loafing. She also venerates verse, and has had her poetry published in Cerebral Catalyst, A Little Poetry, Muse Apprentice Guild, Mad Swirl, and Nova Express, and forthcoming in Underground Window. When not writing, she enjoys reading, drinking wine, snoring, and bonding with her feline friend, Quetzal.