The Atlantic Hires National Review Writer Who Called for Women Who Have Abortions to Be Hanged

Well, here’s something horrible to start the day; in 2014, National Review writer Kevin D. Williamson stated on Twitter that he believed women who have abortions should be hanged — along with their doctors and nurses.

When I first saw these tweets, I was stunned because although it’s common to see this viewpoint expressed in far right comment sections, when a prominent National Review columnist says the same thing it’s highly disturbing. (Now, in the age of Trump, I look back at this as just one more sign of the degradation of the right that would eventually lead to this disgraceful administration.)

A couple of years later, Williamson wrote about this incident at NRO, and actually accused me of “fabricating” his tweets — even though he made it very clear in the original exchanges that he really, seriously believed this.

And now, The Atlantic is announcing that they’re hiring Kevin D. Williamson as a columnist for their prestigious new section for opinions and analysis.

When someone expresses horrible misogynist views like this, they should be shunned by decent publications, not hired and featured as legitimate voices. This is a terrible, terrible move for The Atlantic, and one they’ll come to regret because Williamson is also infamous for many other types of extreme rhetoric.

Williamson has now deleted all of the tweets in question; but you can still read the text versions on this page, and here’s an archived copy of most of the exchange in which he makes it clear he’s not joking or being facetious about this.

Shame on The Atlantic for contributing to the further legitimization of the worst people of the right wing.

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