William Bennett Quotes
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.
Bennett, William J. Interview. Morning in America, 28 Sept. 2005.
This very controversial remark turned out to illustrate the argument that can develop over context. Conservative supporters provided this spin: Bennett was opposed to all kinds of abortion on moral grounds. He was arguing that the opposition to abortion should never be made on a pragmatic basis, but only on a moral basis. To illustrate he gave this example. However he certainly was not advocating the activity. Critics argue that he meant exactly what he said—that he represents a very racist constituency and knew exactly what he was saying and could say it, he thought, because he was not in any, public office at the time. Other critics, who give Bennett the benefit of the doubt, point out that even if he used the example to illustrate that a pragmatic result should not be used to argue the abortion issue, he picked a particularly racially insensitive example which shows his antipathy to Blacks which his critics argue that is part of a long pattern of opposing all legislation and programs designed to reduce the inequality in society.
William John Bennett is an American conservative pundit, politician, and political theorist, who served as Secretary of Education from 1985 to 1988 under President Ronald Reagan. He also held the post of Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy under George H. W. Bush.
