Nixon on Abortion: Might Be "Necessary" With a "Black and a White. . .Or a Rape"

The National Archives has released more recordings and transcripts of Richard Nixon's notorious taped conversations in the Oval Office. The National Archives also released thousands of pages of documents from the Nixon White House.

Charlie Savage analyzes the tapes and documents in a New York Times article. The article includes links to the recordings.

The recorded conversations cover many subjects, including Watergate (subpoenaed recordings of those conversations led to Nixon's resignation). Nixon's comments on abortion, however, stand out in Savage's article:

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, such as interracial pregnancies.

“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.”

Nixon's comments leave the impression that he viewed rape and sex between blacks and whites (translation: black men and white women) as moral or factual equivalents.

Notes of a conversation between Nixon and Ronald Reagan (then Governor of California) reveal that Reagan praised the infamous Saturday Night Massacre as “probably the best thing that ever happened — none of them belong where they were. . . ." Ronald Reagan nominated Robert Bork, the only person in the Department of Justice whom Nixon could convince to fire the Independent Prosecutor investigating the Watergate burglary, to the United States Court of Appeals and, subsequently (and unsuccessfully), to the United States Supreme Court.

See: New York Times: Tapes Reveal Nixon’s View of Abortion