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Women, Abortion, Helen Thomas and Richard Nixon
(picture of President Nixon in China – Helen Thomas in Red – courtesy of Time, Inc.)
One hundred fifty four hours of Nixon tapes were released yesterday and as usual they do not disappoint. The two of the more controversial issues on the recordings are Nixon’s statements regarding abortion and women in Republican politics.
On the abortion issue, Nixon is pretty matter-of-fact about the impact abortions would have on the family, however, the racially tinged statement about abortions being necessary for rape and in his words, “There are times when an abortion is necessary. I know that. When you have a black and a white” shines a light into the dichotomy of the heart of a President who supported affirmative action in the workplace but held to the tradition of keeping the races separate in the bedroom.
The second issue is his statement to then-RNC Chairman George H.W. Bush concerning the need for getting women to run as Republicans for local and state offices. In his words, “Understand, I don’t do it because I’m for women, but I’m doing it because I think maybe a woman might win someplace where a man might not.” President Nixon does not care about equality of the sexes; he cares about winning elections for the party with candidates that happen to be women.
President Nixon must have been a very interesting person to cover as a White House beat. It would be interesting to find out what AP White House reporter Helen Thomas, the only woman reporter to travel to China with Nixon, thought of the former President. Wait a minute… I have her book right here. “For myself, the man was like a roller coaster of contradictions that I am still trying to sort out. In the twenty-four years since he left office, every now and then I feel a twinge of pity. Then another Watergate tape gets released and I get ticked off all over again.”
I wonder which mood Mrs. Thomas feels today…
4 Responses to “Women, Abortion, Helen Thomas and Richard Nixon”
As a member of the Republican Majority for Choice I am upset to see that Nixon could say these things. He was right in saying that there are times even abortions are necessary, but when they are necessary is up to a woman and her family. There is so much more to choice.
Nixon's statements seem to me to go beyond Choice and lean towards compulsion – abortions being required when there's 'a black and a white'.
Nixon must have evolved in the ensuing years. When I started Republicans for Choice in 1990 Nixon not only was one of the first to contribute but asked if I wanted him to ask either of his daughters to join our Board. I told him that they had been through so much that I wouldn't ask them to once again step into the line of fire…so to speak. We knew this fight was going to be long and hard. To his dying day in 1994 he supported our efforts to get the GOP to return to its roots of getting government out of our lives and our bedrooms!
Choice assumes authority. You assume that you have the legitimate right to order the death of your unborn child. The baby has no choice. The mother has no authority to kill her child. There is an end to authority and this is it. “Choice” is not a human right but a destruction of an innocent life, a doctrine that justifies murder while dressing it up as wholesome, even holy. What NIxon had to say about it is beside the point. His cataclysmic fall was the judgment on his hubris and his self-congratulatory prejudices.