Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) noted this week in an exclusive interview with The Daily Wire that telling black women they need an abortion is a “gut punch” to women like his mother who have spent their lives pursuing the American dream for themselves and their kids.
As part of the interview, Scott addressed remarks he made to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen that went viral after she suggested to him during testimony last week that in order for them to succeed, black women needed abortions.
“What we are talking about is whether or not women will have the ability to regulate their reproductive situation in ways that will enable them to plan lives that are fulfilling and satisfying for them,” Yellen said May 10, going on to say that one aspect of being successful is to “feel that you have the financial resources to raise a child, that the children you bring into the world are wanted, and that you have the ability to take care of them.”
“In many cases, abortions are teenage women, particularly low income, and often black, who aren’t in a position to be able to care for children, have unexpected pregnancies, and it deprives them of the ability, often, to continue their education to later participate in the workforce,” Yellen continued.
In the viral clip, Scott told Yellen, “I’ll just simply say that, as a guy raised by a black woman in abject poverty, I am thankful to be here as a United States senator.”
It was a “heartbreaking moment,” Scott told the outlet in his interview while going on to describe Yellen’s remarks as “callous.” Scott said that she was effectively telling single mothers: “Your value to the marketplace is higher if you have an abortion.”
“I still find it shocking today that someone would actually say that,” Scott said. “And not only someone but a powerful woman speaking to women who are going through really hard times, sometimes in broken places. But the most remarkable thing, the sky, the Phoenix Rising, come from the most challenging places in the country.”
When he was asked how his mother might have responded to such remarks, Scott smiled, The Daily Wire noted.
“My mother would probably get a switch and have a conversation about right and wrong,” he said.
“The truth is that my mother would be shocked,” noted the senator. “She would be saddened. It would bring her to tears. It’s like a gut punch for women who are working their tails off, supporting their families, going the extra mile because they hope and pray that this country still affords the opportunity to achieve the American dream.”
To be addressed in such a “condescending tone” would have “broken her heart,” Scott added. “But it would have also angered her at the same time.”
He went on to say that he believes the rhetoric of pro-abortion individuals comes from a “deep, dark place.”
“I hope that we fight against those words,” Scott said. “We fight against those folks who believe that somehow the value proposition to those living in poverty is less than the value proposition in other parts of our country.”
He also commented on claims that black and Hispanic women would be harmed the most of the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade and returns the question of abortion to the states.
“Too often we see headlines and we see caricatures made of people in poverty who happen to be women of color, that reinforcing that stereotype that people have of us and of African-American women, Hispanic women, is something that we should all rally against,” he said. “And when we do that, I think we start learning the responsibility that we have as leaders to stand up for those.”
Americans can’t be silent about those media portrayals, he said.
“People see ‘at risk,’” he said. “I see high potential. I know the difference, because I’ve been one and became the other.”
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