Ala. Democrat to GOP: You'd favor abortion if your daughter was pregnant with black baby

An Alabama lawmaker said his Republican colleagues would change their position on abortion if their daughters were carrying black babies.

State Rep. Alvin Holmes, a Montgomery Democrat, emphatically made the comments Tuesday during a debate on a bill that would ban abortions after a fetal heartbeat was detected.

The bill passed Tuesday by a 73-29 vote but is certain to face a legal challenge.

The bill’s sponsor, state Rep. Mary Sue McClurkin, an Indian Springs Republican, compared the measure to the landmark Brown v. Board of Education ruling that overturned segregation.

That apparently offended Holmes, who is black, and he accused abortion opponents of racist hypocrisy.

"Ninety-nine percent of the all of the white people in here are going to raise their hand that they are against abortion," Holmes said. "On the other hand, 99 percent of the whites who are sitting in here now, if their daughter got pregnant by a black man, they are going to make their daughter have an abortion. They ain’t going to let her have the baby."

There was no audible reaction on a recording posted online by the Birmingham News, and Holmes continued.

“Now listen, you know the truth sometimes hurts,” he said, and repeated his claim.

“She’s got two other white children, and then she’s going to have a little black baby, going to be running around there in the living room, in the den with the rest of them,” Holmes said. “They’re not going to let that happen. You know that and I know that. You will never admit it. You know that and I know that.”

Holmes, who made news last month when he called U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas an “Uncle Tom,” said Republicans opposed abortion to fool voters.

“All this stuff about the abortion and this and that, all that’s just a con game,” he said. “That’s for whites; it ain’t for blacks.”

He recounted a conversation he had with a woman who opposed abortion but intended to pressure her daughter to have an abortion after she became pregnant by a black man.

“I said, ‘You’re not going to let her have that baby,’” Holmes recalled. “She said, ‘Oh, no. No.’ She thought I was crazy.”

Holmes then turned to McClurkin and asked her whether she would allow her daughter to give birth to a biracial child.

The Republican lawmaker said she would, and told Holmes she would accept the baby into her family.

“(I would) let it run around in my living room and enjoy it as my grandchild,” McClurkin said.

Holmes, somewhat incredulously, asked if she would allow the baby to run around “with them other little blond children,” and McClurkin agreed.

“Well, I need to commend you, then,” Holmes said, chuckling. “It wouldn’t be one out of 100,000 to do that.”

Listen to the entire exchange posted online by the Birmingham News:

Watch Rep. Alvin Holmes explain his criticism of Justice Clarence Thomas in this video posted online by Yellow Hammer: