Discrimination and racism are very bad words in today’s politically correct parlance but, apparently, this is not so when the promoters of such attitudes are pursuing an agenda focused on more abortions for black mothers. It came as no surprise to me when columnist Star Parker recently revealed to her readers the starkly anti-African American baby actions of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The group did an about-face quicker than you can spell bigot. Here’s the story.
Recently, the Georgia Senate passed the Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act, SB 529. The bill, which is not by any means a perfect piece of legislation, nonetheless makes it a crime to abort a child because of the preborn baby’s race or gender in most cases. When the bill was first introduced, the Georgia NAACP endorsed it and everyone was ecstatic, but the joy was short-lived. As soon as the bill moved over to the Georgia House, the Georgia NAACP withdrew its support.
As Parker writes,
In NAACP’s press statement, [Georgia NAACP President] DuBose said they came to the realization that the bill amounted to “nothing more than using women’s health as a political tool.”
It’s not news that an abortion holocaust is taking place in black America. Blacks, about 12% of our population, account for almost 40% of the abortions that are performed nationwide each year.
Apparently, Georgia Right to Life, realizing that their state leads the nation in the number of abortions committed on black babies, reached out to the NAACP and one would have expected the effort to be met with open arms. That was not to be, for again, politics trumped truth. Parker analyzed it accurately when she opined:
Particularly troubling for a matter this grave, they [Georgia NAACP] felt no compunction to provide any serious arguments regarding concerns about the language or provisions of the bill that provoked the change of support. They only served up the usual political buzzwords of the pro-abortion community about women’s “health.”
It doesn’t take much imagination to conclude that the NAACP’s priority became politics and not the welfare of the black community, its alleged mission.
Taking a pro-life stand would have put the Georgia NAACP out of sync with its national organization.
The most troubling aspect of this about-face by the Georgia NAACP is that it runs consistent with a second news item. Just a couple of days ago, the Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI), Planned Parenthood’s trusty statistic factory, issued a statement regarding a new study addressing the disparity in the number of abortions among the poor versus the not-so poor.
AGI reports that “[t]he proportion of abortion patients who were poor increased by almost 60%—from 27% in 2000 to 42% in 2008.” AGI provides the explanation for this increase, stating,
[T]he deep economic recession may also have played a role, as financial concerns led more women to want to delay childbearing or limit the number of children they have. Meanwhile, abortion service providers and nonprofit abortion funds across the country have sought to meet the growing need among poor and low-income women by providing services on sliding fee scales and by subsidizing abortion services through charitable donations, which may have allowed some poor women to access services they might not have otherwise been able to afford.
“Gaps in unintended pregnancy and abortion between poor and more affluent women have been increasing since the mid-1990s, so—sadly—none of this comes as a surprise,” says Sharon L. Camp, president and CEO of the Guttmacher Institute. “Reproductive health disparities, and health disparities more generally, are endemic in this country and stem from broader, persistent economic and social inequities. We need to bridge these reproductive health gaps by ensuring that all women, regardless of their economic circumstances, have meaningful access to the full spectrum of information and services—both contraceptive services to reduce levels of unintended pregnancy and abortion services.”
Camp has always had a fetish for overstatement, but in this case she is specifically equating the push toward social and economic equality with the act of providing more child killings in abortion centers from coast to coast. Further, if any female truly wants to delay child bearing, there is a solution that does not involve killing somebody, but that’s another topic for another time.
More to the point regarding discrimination and racism: When one reads the actual AGI study, we discover the fact that black and Hispanic women were “overrepresented” in the study findings. The report also concludes, “One policy implication of this study is that increased restrictions on abortion services would dis¬proportionately affect poor and low-income women, black and Hispanic women, and young adults.”
It is patently obvious that this report lays the groundwork for increasing federal health care dollars to be spent to ensure that minority expectant mothers do not have to carry their children to term. What else might one expect from AGI or, for that matter, from the NAACP? As we have learned over the years, minorities are ongoing targets of the proponents of abortion and the practitioners themselves as they strive to solve the poverty problem by killing the children of the poor.
These most recent news reports give further credence to the work of Dr. Alveda King and her upcoming “Freedom Rides.” Something dramatic must be done to shine a light on such disparities as those exposed by the Georgia NAACP’s actions, and pro-life Freedom Rides are the antidote. Public witness is always the best statement anyone can make.
And as King wrote in her blog, reflecting on the recent actions in Georgia:
The Georgia bill to outlaw abortions that are coerced or based on the race or sex or the child died Thursday night as the legislature adjourned for the year without taking final action on the measure.
This story makes me sad to say that I was once a member of the Georgia Legislature. Both parties, Democrats and Republicans, had a chance to help women and strike a blow at racism and they killed it; along with their actions are the subsequent killings of more babies. So sad!
Dr. King is not alone in her sadness, but we should take heart because of her outspoken, fearless defense of the human person. As one article about her relates,
Dr. Alveda King, niece of the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. … called abortion “selfish,” “racist,” and among the worst inhumanities of our times.
“Abortion and racism are both symptoms of a fundamental human error,” King said, according to a released statement.
“The error is thinking that when someone stands in the way of our wants, we can justify getting that person out of our lives. Abortion and racism stem from the same poisonous root, selfishness,” she added.
King continued, “We create the deceptions that the other person is less important, less worthy, less human.”
“We are all fully human. When we face this truth, there is no justification for treating those who look different than us as lesser beings. If we simply treat other people the way we’d like to be treated, racism, abortion, and other forms of inhumanity will be things of the past,” she said.
King, who had two abortions, has spoken frequently at pro-life rallies about the traumatic, lingering effects of abortion on women and its connection to racism.
The challenge is to tell the truth; King is doing that, thank God.