UPDATE (7/8/20, 8:14 p.m. ET): After Kanye West speculated that Planned Parenthoods were established by “white supremacists,” he further asserted his “pro-life” stance. The music artist took to Twitter to share a screenshot of a Google search reading “what does a 6 month fetus look like,” which pulled up illustrations of unborn fetuses. “These souls deserve to live,” Kanye wrote over the screenshot, which he soon deleted.
https://twitter.com/ROSESGNG/status/1281003186073989120
ORIGINAL: Kanye West, 43, revealed his conspiracy theory about Planned Parenthood in a July 8 interview with Forbes, after announcing his 2020 presidential campaign. Over “four rambling hours of interviews” with the publication, Kanye laid out his political views, which seem at odds with wife Kim Kardashian‘s famously pro-choice views. “I am pro-life because I’m following the word of the bible,” the religious-leaning rapper said. “Planned Parenthoods have been placed inside cities by white supremacists to do the Devil’s work.”
The organization swiftly responded to the rapper’s outlandish remarks. Planned Parenthood’s Director of Black Leadership and Engagement, Nia Martin-Robinson said in a statement, “Black women are free to make our own decisions about our bodies and pregnancies, and want and deserve to have access to the best medical care available,” she said. “Any insinuation that abortion is Black genocide is offensive and infantilizing. The real threat to Black communities’ safety, health, and lives stems from lack of access to quality, affordable health care, police violence and the criminalization of reproductive health care by anti-abortion opposition.”
Fans of Keeping Up With The Kardashians would recall that Kim and her sisters Khloe and Kourtney visited a Planned Parenthood clinic back in 2017, and publicly voiced their support for the organization. “My sisters and I visited Planned Parenthood recently and learned that the House of Representatives forced through a bill that strips health care coverage from millions of people and raises health care costs, including Planned Parenthood patients,” Kim said on Instagram at the time. “They are such an amazing place that provides so much to so many! #istandwithpp.”
In his new Forbes interview, Kanye also came out as an anti-vaxxer. “It’s so many of our children that are being vaccinated and paralyzed,” he said. “So, when they say the way we’re going to fix COVID is with a vaccine, I’m extremely cautious. That’s the mark of the beast. They want to put chips inside of us, they want to do all kinds of things, to make it where we can’t cross the gates of heaven. I’m sorry when I say they, the humans that have the Devil inside them. And the sad thing is that the saddest thing is that we all won’t make it to heaven, that there’ll be some of us that do not make it. Next question.” During the interview, Kanye claimed he contracted the coronavirus earlier in 2020.