Abortion Funding Debate Sparks Outrageous Comments

Martine Kaplan — July 17, 2009 – 1:58 pm | Civil Liberties | Domestic Policy | Health Care | Reproductive Rights | Republicans | Women's Issues Comments (1) Add a comment

The Huffington Post is reporting a preposterous comment made by Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-KS) during a recent debate on abortion funding in the District of Columbia.

Tiahrt claimed, to boos from his colleagues in the House:

[If] there is a financial incentive that will be put in place, paid for by tax dollars, that will encourage women who are—single parents, living below the poverty level, to have the opportunity for a free abortion, if you take that scenario and apply it to many of the great minds we have today, who would we have been deprived of? Our president grew up in a similar circumstance. If that financial incentive was in place, is it possible that his mother may have taken advantage of it? Clarence Thomas, Supreme Court Justice, if those circumstances were in place, is it possible that we would be denied his great mind?

The notion that women will flock to abortion clinics if abortions are made free is offensive. The decision to get an abortion is a personal one, and while finances are definitely a concern, I highly doubt that funding choice will have the affect Tiahrt says it will.

Tiahrt equates abortion with poverty, and poverty with being African American. Prominent Americans of all races grew up in families living in poverty. Abortion is a choice available to all women—rich or poor, minority or not—regardless of who the fetus could grow up to be. The suggestion that President Obama and Justice Thomas could have been aborted is outrageous, and no responsible elected official (or anyone else) should make such a statement.

To watch Tiahrt’s comments, click here.

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