Kanye’s anti-abortion, anti-vaccine view at odds with wife Kim's support for Planned Parenthood and vaccination
Despite being pro-vaccine and supporter of abortion, Kim Kardashian has chosen to remain silent after her husband’s bombshell interview with Forbes on Tuesday, July 8. Kanye West invited new controversies after making derogatory remarks about Planned Parenthood. In the interview, West compared the non-profit organization to a Satanic baby-killing cult and also revealed his doubts over the coronavirus vaccine as he called it the “mark of the beast”. In spite of this, Kim remained silent despite publicly advocating for Planned Parenthood in the past and taking her whole family for whooping cough vaccination.
The Forbes interview happened after the 43-year-old rapper announced on the Fourth of July that he was running for president in 2020. In the interview, West criticized Planned Parenthood that provides reproductive health care in the US and globally, saying: “Planned Parenthoods have been placed inside cities by white supremacists to do the Devil’s work,” adding he is “pro-life because I’m following the word of the bible”.
However, his wife Kim’s past actions have stood at polar opposite to her husband’s beliefs. Even in 2017, the 39-year-old met with Sue Dunlap, the president, and chief executive of Planned Parenthood Los Angeles, in an episode of ‘Keeping Up with the Kardashians’ to form an opinion on the organization and its services. “The perception of Planned Parenthood is that it is an abortion clinic; that is nothing what it is like,” Kim said in the episode, adding: “Hearing that first hand [women's stories] really made it real for me.”
She also posted about her first-hand experience in an Instagram post and showed her 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. They are such an amazing place that provides so much to so many! #istandwithpp,” Kim wrote.
During the Tuesday interview, West also gave statements revealing his anti-vaccination stance. “It’s so many of our children that are being vaccinated and paralyzed… 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,” the composer told Forbes. He also added that in February he contracted Covid-19. “Chills, shaking in the bed, taking hot showers, looking at videos telling me what I'm supposed to do to get over it,” he described his experience with the deadly virus.
However, Kim is just opposite her husband as in a 2013 episode of ‘Keeping Up with the Kardashians’ she took her whole family to get Tdap vaccines that protect against whooping cough. The TV personality was also seen encouraging her sister to get the vaccination, otherwise, they would not be given permission to see Kim’s daughter North, who was a toddler at that time.
Meanwhile, Planned Parenthood has slammed West for his disrespectful statements. "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,” the Director of Black Leadership and Engagement at Planned Parenthood, Nia Martin Robinson 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.”