These kinds of population control statements are always ironic because the people making them never volunteer to be the first ones to go.

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Writer Tim Stanley responds:

In retrospect, Savage might try to insist that he was only joking but there’s no smile on his face and the point seems quite seriously made. It’s also not funny. Had he said that old people should be exterminated to bring the numbers down, his career might be over. Because he said something similar about abortion, he’ll probably be defended by radical pro-choicers. But what he’s basically saying here is that women should be compelled to abort their children so that there are less people around to annoy Dan Savage. Of course, they already do this in China.

The irony is that prior to this comment Savage and Hitchens were arguing about who was the more authoritarian: religious conservatives or free-loving liberals. With this statement on abortion, Savage answers his own question. In a way that should make both Left and Right shudder.