Kanye West said in an emotional anti-abortion rant at his first political rally on Sunday that he and his wife, Kim Kardashian West, had considered an abortion when she was pregnant with their first child.
At the event in South Carolina, West said that if he were elected president, he would fight to keep abortion legal but would strongly discourage it by offering people $1 million for every child they have.
He announced a 2020 presidential bid earlier this month, running under what he’s called the “Birthday Party.”
According to USA Today, West told the audience at the rally: “The maximum increase would be everybody that has a baby gets a million dollars or something in that range.
“If you had the opportunity to be given a million dollars, just for being pregnant, would you have considered it? And then everybody would start having children, the greatest gift of life.”
West teared up as he said that his father had wanted his mother to have an abortion and that he considered an abortion when his wife was pregnant with their daughter North, who is now 7. The couple now have four children together.
“My dad wanted to abort me. My mom saved my life. There would have been no Kanye West, because my dad was too busy,” West said.
“I almost killed my daughter … So even if my wife were to divorce me after this speech, she brought North into the world, even when I didn’t want to,” he added. “She stood up, and she protected that child.”
A representative for Kim Kardashian West did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
Sunday’s event was West’s first rally since announcing on Twitter on July 4 that he was entering the 2020 presidential race.
At the rally, he said Harriet Tubman “never actually freed the slaves” but just had them “go work for other white people,” which drew criticism from the audience, according to The Associated Press.
It’s unclear whether West is serious about the run, as he’s missed the deadline to register as a candidate in several states. He has qualified to be on the ballot in Oklahoma and would need to gather 10,000 signatures by Monday afternoon to qualify in South Carolina.
Some have speculated that West’s candidacy could be an attempt to drum up attention for a new album. In an interview with Forbes published earlier this month, he insisted that his candidacy was not a publicity stunt.
