The narrator in The Great American Crime Drop segment of the film states that Roe vs. Wade was the precise opposite of Ceausescu’s program in communist Romania, wherein abortion was outlawed. No, the opposite would be to make abortion obligatory and outlaw birth.
The voice-over sounds like an elderly black man, an interesting choice given the controversy over the authors’ conclusion on the single most compelling reason for the nation-wide crime drop. There will be fewer elderly black men in decades to come than otherwise would have existed without Roe vs. Wade. Perhaps this and the use of the Romanian dictator (a “right-wing” communist and thus better target for opprobrium) was meant to forestall accusations of a secret hankering for eugenic style solutions on the part of the authors? One wonders.
March 13, 2011 at 5:53 pm
To be less rigorous, maybe it would be expected to have the opposite sign, even if not equal magnitude.
A “right-wing” communist really is an excellent target. Reminds me of how Robert George and Cornel West were able to join together, both in praise of each other and condemnation of eugenics.
March 13, 2011 at 7:11 pm
Yea, one could just as easily say the opposite of “not allow abortion” is “allow abortion,” which describes the situation accurately.
March 13, 2011 at 9:41 pm
It seems one could be forgiven for thinking that Roe vs Wade was intended to ensure that the black percentage of the US population did not grow too large.
Perhaps it was only an unintended consequence.
March 14, 2011 at 7:28 am
The effect of abortion on crime is mediated by giving women greater control over the timing of childbirth, not by reducing the number of children overall. This does technically impact population growth but in a fairly marginal way.
March 17, 2011 at 1:24 am
Right, the narrator was director-writer Melvin Van Peebles, who pretty much kicked off black-made films in America back in 1971.