The Atlantic splits with conservative writer over abortion comments

The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg said Thursday the magazine was “parting ways” with newly hired conservative writer Kevin Williamson after fresh evidence emerged that he had endorsed hanging women who get abortions.

Goldberg had initially defended hiring Williamson from National Review despite complaints about his previous writing, some of which critics said was racially insensitive or offensive to transgender people. Much of the criticism involved a 2014 tweet that suggested women who had abortions “should face capital punishment, namely hanging.”


On Wednesday, the liberal research group Media Matters unearthed a podcast in which Williamson expressed the same position.

“The language he used in this podcast — and in my conversations with [Williamson] in recent days — made it clear that the original tweet did, in fact, represent his carefully considered view,” Goldberg told staff in a Thursday memo.

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“The tweet was not merely an impulsive, decontextualized, heat-of-the-moment post, as Kevin had explained it,” Goldberg continued. “Furthermore, the language used in the podcast was callous and violent. This runs contrary to The Atlantic’s tradition of respectful, well-reasoned debate, and to the values of our workplace.”

Goldberg described Williamson — who joined last month after a decade at National Review — as “a gifted writer.” But Goldberg said he came to the conclusion “that The Atlantic is not the best fit for his talents, and so we are parting ways.”

“We remain committed to grappling with complex moral issues in our journalism. Some of our colleagues are pro-life, and some are pro-choice; we have pro-death-penalty and anti-death-penalty writers; we have liberals and conservatives,” Goldberg wrote. “We obviously understood that Kevin himself is pro-life when we asked him to write for us. This is not about Kevin’s views on abortion.”

Despite Goldberg's explanation, several prominent voices on the right interpreted the move as caving to liberal criticism and silencing conservatives.

“Kevin Williamson’s firing is a reminder that there are two Americas and one side will stop at nothing to silence the other,” said conservative radio host and writer Erick Erickson. “This is not about a bad tweet or a bad view. It is about the left wanting a monopoly on the public square so none can be exposed to competing ideas.”

The American Conservative’s Rod Dreher said The Atlantic “cutting [Williamson] loose under left-wing fire is deplorable,” while Daily Wire editor-in-chief Ben Shapiro called the decision “gutless garbage.”

“Kevin Williamson was Never Trump *and* one of the most talented writers of his generation,” wrote The Weekly Standard’s Mark Hemingway. “They still wouldn’t let him work for a a venerable liberal institution. Let that be a lesson.”

Progressive writers and organizations, however, cheered the decision. Shareblue’s Oliver Willis said the entire incident demonstrated “once again how the mainstream media bends over backwards for repugnant conservatism and it also gives conservatives another chance to play-act at being victims of the big liberal machine.”

Reproductive rights group NARAL tweeted that the magazine “should never have normalized Kevin Williamson’s lethal & chilling ideology or published his work,” but the group said it was “relieved” he was let go. Nita Chaudhary, co-founder of women’s group UltraViolet, which had gathered 25,000 signatures calling for Williamson to be fired, said while she was “pleased Williamson has been ousted, The Atlantic will not be able to wash this stain away.”

And feminist author Jessica Valenti, who was one of the leading critics of The Atlantic hiring Williamson, said she was “very relieved for the women who work at the magazine.”

