Fox News anchor suggests abortions would help control low-income population

By David Edwards and John Byrne
Tuesday, December 8th, 2009 -- 9:15 am
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alisyn camerota1 Fox News anchor suggests abortions would help control low income populationEven by the standards of Fox News, which routinely takes a drubbing from liberal critics over sensationalist rhetoric, a comment by Fox News anchor Alisyn Camerota Monday seemed to toe the most outrageous line.

Camerota asked a guest -- perhaps playing devil's advocate -- if there was benefit to a Democratic senator's healthcare amendment which blocked federal funding for abortions.

"If there is no federal money used to subsidize abortions for low-income women, doesn't that mean there will be more low-income babies, and do any of these amendments talk about the health care for them?" Camerota asked.

Her guest, conservative panelist Kate Obenshain appeared stunned, almost too afraid to speak.

"Do you mean more children will be born because the government won't pay to have them terminated?" she asked.

Story continues below...

The amendment has been introduced by conservative Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE). A similar amendment has passed in the House.

A guest on Talking Points Memo, however, offered some defense for the Fox anchor.

"I may be naive here, but I can see why her question could have been posed in order to dredge up the subtextual nature of the forced-childbirth mentality's two contradictory impulses: To control women on the one hand and to maintain the facade that "it's all about the babies" on the other," the commenter wrote. "If so, I think she did a splendid job of exposing the befuddled guests' hypocrisy, which is what made her uncomfortable."

This video is from Fox News' America's Newsroom, broadcast Dec. 7, 2009.



Download video via RawReplay.com

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Story comments are below...

  • pagesheldon
    You have zero talent for journalism if you need to exaggerate someone's words to this degree just to get reader's attention. You should be arrested and fined for defamation of character, THEN you should actually attempt to develop journalistic talent because you seriously lack in anything but sensationalism. Perhaps the paparazzi would be a better fit for the likes of you
  • cireeric67
    Any woman who has an elective abortion should give up the right to have any future children.

    Instead of pushing abortion, we should be focusing on the issue of adoption.
  • Heil Mary
    Rethugs are expecting the PEDOPHILE Catholic Church to support these kids -- in exchange for sex with them! I'm also amazed that no one brings up the economic savings of contraception and $400 abortions over $40,000 minimum for each hospital childbirth. And what if the mothers become too disabled to work, or their kids have catastrophic defects? Also, our schools are running out of money and many parents' jobs have been outsourced to the OVERPOPULATED Third World. If Rethugs hadn't joined the pedophile Vatican in cutting international family planning, Americans would STILL HAVE THEIR JOBS. Abortions save women's lives and American jobs!
  • rhetoricus
    Am I the only one that thinks she made a legit point? Forcing people to give birth--especially poor people--is hardly "pro-life" if those kids don't have the healthcare the GOP is so eager to deprive them of.
  • phelicks
    Low income, as in trailer parks full of white catholics? Like around my area?
    So, has FOX fired her yet for possessing a shred of common sense.
  • Anais
    I think Camerota's question about health care for more low-income babies who would not be aborted was not as outrageous as you might think. I think the question actually was a good one and elicited a stunned response that shows how little Republicans think about the long-term consequences of their rigid ideology.
  • matticusfinch
    Shes got a point. How anyone could have a child they couldnt afford is beyond me. To raise a kid in poverty, in low income schools on food stamps in broken homes is the hight of ignorance and selfishness. you are doing the kid a huge disservice. I say use protection but i would much rather my mom abort me then let me grow up to be an undereducated disadvantaged kid pre disposed to being a criminal and a drag on society. someones gotta pay for these kids.
  • megamike
    two suggestions
    any woman who wants an abortion and cannot get one should go to where the protesters are protesting at an abortion clinic and hand her baby over to them...they dont want abortions, than they get the kids they want woman to have
    secondly the abortion clinics should be located in the worst most crime ridden ghetto part of the city...lets see how many of those lily white protesters stand out in front of a clinic with their signs
  • njt
    Anyone protesting abortions should really spend their time doing something positive like adopting and caring for unwanted children.
  • RadicalCaveman
    Non-aborted poor babies will just grow up to vote for Democrats! It's all part of a plot by ACORN!
  • howiebledsoe
    Sorry, but it´s true, Causceceu outlawed abortion during his dictatorship of Romania. It is curious to note that the vast majority or angry, unemployed and impoverished young men that tore his body to pieces, pissed on it and burned it, would never have been there to do that had he allowed women to make their own choices. Of course, this boils down to WOMEN´S CHOICES, and if a woman feels that having another child will seriously burden her existing family, she should be free to take this option.
    If you look at most abortion recipients, yes, they are low income. (knuckle dragging religious fanatics not included.)
  • cireeric67
    Quoted; 'if a woman feels that having another child will seriously burden her existing family, she should be free to take this option'

    I think that maybe she should keep her legs closed or use another method in order to NOT get pregnant. Abortion is NOT birth control.
  • njt
    that's like saying birth control is not birth control. Wishing and hoping won't make it so. Abortion is, like it or not, one form of birth control BY DEFINITION. Here, take it up with Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birth_control
    As to maybe keeping legs closed, once someone is already pregnant that advice is USELESS.
  • OldAtlantic
    Insightful comment. I support federal funding of abortion.
  • hmmmm
    The Fox host said nothing of the sort. Here is a dose of reality, Margarete Sanger wanted abortion for precisely this reason, to get rid of poor whites and all blacks in the country. But she is hailed as a liberal hero.
  • daman2012
    That is an obvious. It also lowers crime. Read Freakonomics...
  • MarxyMcLiberalson
    Here Drudge ...errr RAW goes again.

    She said nothing of the kind. your Headline is totally misleading. She asked that if you are against abortion how will you provide for the babies that arent aborted?

    Is that so terrible, come on people, I know we love to bash fox and RAW likes to twist the truth in their headlines, yellow and journalism comes to mind.
  • cireeric67
    This is a legitimate point. Some people do not care what happens to babies after they are born.

    But my question would be, why is it the governments responsibility to take care of these children when the parents obviously do not care about them, other than the possibility of increasing their welfare checks. The responsibility of the kids belongs to the parents.

    As shocking as this may be, some people do not know what birth control is. Abortion is not one method.
  • njt
    You are factually incorrect.
    Abortion is one method of birth control.
    If you disagree, go suck on google for a while. You might learn something.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birth_control
    "... the chemical or surgical induction of abortion of the developing embryo or, later, foetus"
  • Bunky
    Maybe her real concern is that more poor people equals more future Democrats who vote
  • daman2012
    less crime
  • Oliver
    I don't think the woman was stunned, she was confused. She's clearly an attractive woman who isn't remotely bright.
  • DougI
    Should we be surprised there are such stupid people of Fox Noise? No wonder they drive their guests to the studio in a small yellow bus.
  • Ken
    Alisyn Camerota asked a perfectly logical and reasonable question. It might shock so-called "conservative" "pro-lifers" who tend to stop caring about life upon birth, but it should not upset liberals and other thinking people.

    One of the reasons that some "liberals" are concerned about government-funded abortions is the fear that such programs could become government mandated abortions for poor people and "undesireables," as in China.

    One precedent giving rise to this fear was the forced sterilization of mentally challenged persons, such as a case where even the esteemed Oliver Wendell Holmes held that "three generations of idiots is enough."
  • kevineyesopen
    Holmes was right and that is why we need to sterilize all the bush's, limbaughs, pelosi's and most to the politicians and ruling elite.... and stop whining about the 'poor', there are more than enough welfare recipients for you to drool over and keep in a state of 'helplessness'.
  • Duane_Poncy
    You are absolutely correct, Ken, it was an entirely appropriate question. I am getting very tired of Raw Story blowing this kind of stuff way out of proportion; it makes the left look like the nutwing right.
  • kiboshki
    .
    Of course it's an appropriate question. And no one would think twice if Maddow had thrown out a gotha like that.

    The question isn't the "news" here. It's who asked it. That FOX actually made a hyper-conservative guest uncomfortable, while not newsworthy, is certainly far outside the norm for them.

    Now, if they would only step up, start playing like real journalists, and ask hardball questions like that of all the politicians and demagogues they host (Cheney, we're looking at you!), maybe the would finally be on the road to becoming a real news organization.
    .
  • Disenfranchised
    Think this story is amazing?

    You should read what John P. Holdren (Obama's Science Czar) said about "abortions" in a book called "Ecoscience"..

    http://zombietime.com/john_holdren/

    Hold on to your hats kiddies....this guy has nothing on Fox News pundits. Enjoy the read and buckle up.

    Sleep tight little ones.
  • Justin
    You are the only zombie here. That book and especially what he wrote were to ask and answer questions that you and I could not possibly fathom. The things he said in that book are comparable to the question "You drive your car into a river with your wife and child, you escape and can only save 1 other human life, who do you save?" What he said are not his personal beliefs and they are under circumstances beyond your or my lifetime.
  • Disenfranchised
    Hahahaha, and I guess you read the book huh?

    Lemme, guess, you paid the $650 -$1000 to read it? Can't get it for any less on Amazon or Ebay.

    Those were excerpts from the book about his thoughts on curbing global overpopulation. Some were scanned online. Nice try though my little apologist Nazi friend.
  • therealjoeschmoe
    You truly are a douchebag. Try getting another link to post. It's getting old.

    Btw - how many BP gas cards have you earned this month, poser? Do you also get a cut of that book (like anyone is buying it)?

    What a frightening world you live in.
  • Justin
    Suck it: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/stateme...

    Glenn Beck claims science czar John Holdren proposed forced abortions and putting sterilants in the drinking water to control population

    PANTS ON FIRE!
  • Justin
    No, I did not read the book. But this has been in the news and debunked in the past. We do not have global population, and certainly did not 30 years ago when he wrote it. It was based on doomsday scenarios and was a practice on theory.
  • dennycrane
    If this happens, who the fuck is going to fight the capitalist pigs wars? Their "cannon" fodder will be greatly reduced. Finally, we can laugh when they "shoot" themselves in their own foot. I would like a list of the "anchor-sores" that have family members in the military.
  • randallspencer
    And. Why is this news? This is an everyday thing for the FauxNews idiots. Nothing they do surprises me anymore.
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