pro-choicers on abortion find an (uneasy?) ally in Richard Nixon

From Charlie Savage in the New York Times...

Of course, at the time, Nixon was working with old-school science on life in the womb (although this is still common today, especially among older people)-- as well as a dog's breakfast of views on civil rights (again, more common among older people)...

But if you're going to allow abortion (or any form of eugenics) for whatever reason-- as a matter of personal choice-- why not race (or gender)?

On Jan. 22, 1973, when the Supreme Court struck down laws criminalizing abortion in Roe v. Wade, President Richard M. Nixon made no public statement. But the next day, newly released tapes reveal, he privately expressed ambivalence.

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 — like interracial pregnancies, he said.

“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.”