Kanye West: "Abortion should be legal"

The day before missing the ballot requirements in South Carolina, presidential candidate Kanye West slammed abortion for ten minutes in his first campaign rally. 

But then he informed a pro-choice heckler that he supports a so-called "woman's right to choose."

Said West: "My stance is not to make abortion illegal at all.  It should always be legal, but there should be an option of maximum increase for everybody. Abortion should be legal, because guess what? The law is not by God anyway."

West repeated: "In 2020, abortion should be legal, but the option of maximum increase should be available.  Maximum increase would be everybody that has a baby gets a million dollars, or something to that effect." 

A partial transcript of the exchange follows.

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Kanye West, South Carolina rally, 7-19-2020

20:00  There is no such thing as an illegal immigrant.  People have been working here and supporting the world, then they need the opportunity for the freedom of the state, for the country that they work for.

20:18  Let me go to Planned Parenthood.  The statement is, in the Bible it says "thou shalt not kill."  I remember that my girlfriend called me, screaming and crying, and I was just thinking, because at that time I was a rapper, I was out there, and I had this girlfriend—and I'm going to verse this in a way that I don't give a f***.  So my girlfriend called me, and I said to myself, "Please don't [unintelligible]."  Then she said, "I'm pregnant."  I said, "Yes!" [raises fist]  Then I said, "No!"  [crouches down, audience laughs]  

I'm going to tell you what's on my mind.  She was crying, and she's like, "I just came from the doctor."  And I was going [covers face, unintelligible] because I was having, you know, the rapper's lifestyle.  She said she was pregnant, and so for one month, and two months, and three months, we talked about whether or not we're having this child.  And she had the pills in her hand. You know those pills, where if you take the pills, if you take it, it's a wrap.  The baby is gone.  So I was sitting up in Paris and I got my leather pants on . . . And I am in the apartment and I've got my laptop on, and all my creative ideas, I got my shoes [etc.], and the screen went black and white.  And God said, "If you're going to f*** with my vision, I'm going to f*** with yours." And I called my wife, and she said, "We're going to have this baby."  I said, "We're going to have this child." . . . She stood up and she protected that child. You know who else protected a child?  Forty-three years ago, who protected a child?  My mom.  My mom saved my life.  My dad wanted to abort me.  My mom saved my life.  There would have been no Kanye West, because my dad was too busy.   23:35 [cries]

24:03  I almost killed my daughter!  I almost killed my daughter! [sobs] . . . . 

24:49 I love my daughter.  No more Plan B.  Plan A: anyone who is pregnant, you have the option of $50,000 a year that I will support with in the organizations that I made, to take care of that child.  Plan A.  You have the option.  You have the Plan A option.  

[25:30 angry woman: "What about women who have babies....Is that what you are proposing"]

25:56 Steve Jobs was adopted. . . . It takes a village to raise a child. 

[27:00 angry woman: "I agree with you, but I don't think we should get rid of Planned Parenthood, I don't think we should get rid of Plan B, I don't think we should get rid of abortions."]

29:00 I understand those who are raped and would get an ... abortion.   I understand those who can't afford their fifth, sixth, seventh, or even their first child.  I understand. . . . God will still make a way. . . . Society has set it up where we feel that God won't make a way . . . but as soon as I said the name of Jesus out loud, He gave me increase.  He gave me platform. . . . on the word of Jesus and humility and families.  

30:26 But what I'm saying is, we understand, we're not going to go back to women having to go in the alley and do crazy type of things.  We understand the condition, we understand the condition of black people in America. . . . We understand the condition of women in America.  We understand that we live in a white supremacist world. . . .

31:30: I am a Christian, but also I am a listener.  . . .

33:00 When the baby is conceived, at that point it is a soul.  It is a real, living thing. . . .  we all agree the six month old is a baby.  We all know "my body, my choice.".... what if you've got a one-year-old, so eighteen months older than the tweet I sent out, and she says, "my house, my choice.  I'm going to kill your child"?. . .. I don't give a f*** about the presidency or not.  You understand? [applause overwhelms] God says [points up]....  

34:00 I am in service to God. . ..  How do we disobey?  When we kill, that's how we disobey.  When we steal.  How else?  Lie, cheat. . . . Trump, Biden, nor Kanye West, can't free us.  The only thing that can free us is by obeying the rules that were given to us for a promised land.

[36:00 angry woman reveals she had abortion a few months earlier but says she couldn't support the child on $9 minimum wage. West tells crowd to listen.]

36:55 My stance is not to make abortion illegal at all.  It should always be legal, but there should be an option of maximum increase for everybody . . . [crowd applauds] Abortion should be legal, because guess what? The law is not by God anyway. . . .

37:30 In 2020, abortion should be legal, but the option of maximum increase should be available.  Maximum increase would be everybody that has a baby gets a million dollars, or something to that effect.  

[38:00 angry woman smiles, laughs, says he doesn't have the funding] . . .

[after monologue, West hugs angry woman] 

41:30  This woman was sent by God, so brave, to be able to tell you her story, the fact that she was willing to stand in front of all you guys and tell you that she had an abortion, to make the point of how important it was for her to have the option as a woman because she did not have the resources in order to have a baby, as she felt.  This woman is so brave.

[crowd applauds]

West’s pro-abortion comments were ignored as the pro-life community zeroed in on favorable excerpts. But the rapper’s full remarks reveal a man trying to please both sides in a mishmash of unprincipled confusion.