Huckabee: Natalie Portman Glamorizes Out-of-Wedlock Pregnancy
Potential Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said this week that he found Oscar-winner Natalie Portman's out-of-wedlock pregnancy "troubling."
"It's unfortunate that we glorify and glamorize the idea" of having children outside of marriage, said Huckabee on a Seattle-based radio talk show hosted by Michael Medved, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.
Portman is pregnant with her fiancé Benjamin Millepied's child. The two met while filming "Black Swan," the movie that gave Portman her first Oscar.
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"You know Michael, one of the things that's troubling is that people see a Natalie Portman or some other Hollywood starlet who boasts of, 'Hey look, you know, we're having children, we're not married, but we're having these children, and they're doing just fine.' But there aren't really a lot of single moms out there who are making millions of dollars every year for being in a movie," said Huckabee during the Monday interview.
He continued, "Most single moms are very poor, uneducated, can't get a job, and if it weren't for government assistance, their kids would be starving to death and never have health care. And that's the story that we're not seeing."
The former Arkansas governor pointed out that 75 percent of African-American children and 61 percent of Hispanic children are born out of wedlock. Overall, about 41 percent of all live births in America are from out-of-wedlock relationships.
In his new book, A Simple Government: Twelve Things We Really Need From Washington (and a Trillion That We Don't), Huckabee argues that the family unit is the most fundamental form of government.
"This is not just a social issue as often has been described," he said during a recent speaking engagement at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. "The first level of government to which any of us is subjected … is the government of our own family."
Broken or weak families result in the government having to spend more, he contends in his book.
Huckabee is the front-runner on many 2012 presidential Republican candidate polls. In a Gallup poll released Feb. 23, Huckabee was the top pick among 17 potential GOP presidential nominees. He has not, however, stated clearly if he will run, but has told reporters that he is still weighing the option.
