When you see a clip of the Ben Shapiro Show, you already know you’re going to get some foolishness. In the June 30 episode, Ben Shapiro, Candace Owens, and some other uneducated white man had an echo chamber discussion about people who are pro-choice.
The show is just what you would expect; it’s a two-minute clip chock full of historical ignorance, ad hominem, and strawman fallacies.
Shapiro began, as usual, with an oversimplification of something a much more intelligent Black woman said. “Ayanna Pressley said today that the real problem of abortion today is that it’s going to disproportionately harm LGBTQ people,” Shapiro declared. “And I thought to myself, ‘I’m going to need a chart on this one…I may not be an expert, I’m fairly certain that this is not going to primarily target gay men and lesbian women.”
Candace Owens: “There was no abortion happening when we had slaves” pic.twitter.com/aR38UBILKs
— Jason Campbell (@JasonSCampbell) June 30, 2022
Then Owens chimed in, “Amy Schumer—this is exactly the same thing—she gave a statement about ‘this is exactly what the slaveholders wanted,’ and I was like, ‘I would like a further explanation as to what you mean…because there was no abortion happening when we had slaves.”
Reactions from Twitter were equally confused.
Wait.
“When *WE* had slaves”?She does know the color of her skin, right?
— Evan Rogers (@The_Inimitable) June 30, 2022
Love to have a time machine and throw Candace back in time so she could have the opportunity to learn a little about her ancestors’ past and might stop saying stupid things like”we had slaves” and change her view on abortion after she saw what master’s did to slave women like her
— ChangedtoInde (@Changedin2016) June 30, 2022
Forced pregnancy smacks of chattel slavery and involuntary servitude, which was banned by the 13th amendment. pic.twitter.com/p165lhFGx9
— Charles Tweeting (@decoonit) June 30, 2022
Forcing women, especially women of color, to have kids is to treat them as breeding chattel (which Black women endured during domestic slave trade). Shapiro’s “I can’t be racist for wanting more Black babies” is not only racist but reduces women to their reproductive capacities
— Tim (@timmy_pi_) June 30, 2022
She really said “we” had slaves
— STEVE (@JJarJarTolkein) June 30, 2022
Owens’ asinine assertion– simply stated– is not correct. Ben Shapiro is misinformed, and she needs a history lesson, stat.
Self-induced abortions were prevalent at the height of the slave trade. Enslaved women knew that enslavers financially profited from their ability to bear children – increasing the slave population. It was an act of resistance and protection for Black women to do whatever they needed to avoid sexual intercourse, self-induce abortions, and maintain their reproductive rights.
They fought to prevent producing more enslaved children who would have to bear the same trauma as their mothers. Preventative measures didn’t always work, as enslavers believed they had rights to a woman’s body in all forms.
The LDHI wrote, “New mothers risked eventual separation from their children, and if they had daughters, they knew any sexual violence they had experienced could become their daughter’s experience as well. Therefore, women used this kind of resistance to combat slaveholders’ control over their bodies and protect their potential children from the horrors of bondage.”
It would benefit Owens to do her research.
