By Jim Sedlak
The media is all ablaze this week because an informed black man was nominated for a statewide office in Virginia. What has the media all upset is the “extreme” position of this scholarly, Harvard Law School graduate who has run a successful law practice while also becoming pastor of a Christian church.
The “extreme” position is the fact that he does not like Planned Parenthood. In fact, he once said, “Planned Parenthood has been far more lethal to black lives than the KKK ever was.”
The purpose of this article is not to address whether or not this gentleman is the best candidate for the elected position in question. Rather, I want to stress that what he said about Planned Parenthood is true.
Planned Parenthood used to release the racial characteristics of the abortions performed in its own facilities. The last year it made these statistics public, it documented that 23.2 percent of its abortion customers were non-Hispanic black and another 12.5 percent were Hispanic.
Planned Parenthood has documented in its annual reports that it has committed six million surgical and medical abortions since 1970. At 23.2 percent, the number of black lives snuffed out in Planned Parenthood abortion facilities is 1.4 million! This, of course, does not count the millions who have been killed through the abortifacient action of the morning-after pill, the birth control pill, and similar products distributed by Planned Parenthood.
According to the Tuskegee University Archives, a total of 3,446 blacks were lynched in the United States between 1882 and 1968. There were a number of groups involved in these lynchings, but the estimate is that the KKK was probably responsible for about 2,000 of them.
The data say that Planned Parenthood has killed approximately 1.4 million black babies and the KKK killed around 2,000 adult blacks. Some may argue that the Klan may have killed several thousand more but, when compared with Planned Parenthood’s toll, it is clear that the statement “Planned Parenthood has been far more lethal to black lives than the KKK ever was,” is clearly true.
Planned Parenthood tries very hard to convince people that it does not target blacks, Hispanics, or other minorities. It is crucial for it to maintain this public perception. But, the fact is that blacks historically have been about 12 percent of the total population and, yet, they obtain 23.2 percent of the abortions at Planned Parenthood.
WHY IS THAT?
One clue is where Planned Parenthood locates its facilities. In October of last year, Life Issues Institute made public the results of an extensive study of the location of Planned Parenthood abortion facilities across the United States. What the results showed was that “102 out of 165, or 62 percent of the Planned Parenthood abortion facilities are located in areas with relatively high African American populations, or in ‘targeted neighborhoods.’” In addition, “48 out of 165, or 29 percent of the Planned Parenthood abortion facilities are within walking distance of a census tract that is at least 50 percent African American.”
A few years ago, I was praying outside a Planned Parenthood facility when a young black girl came out crying. I talked with her and she told me that she had just found out that she was pregnant. I tried to console her. I told her that she shouldn’t worry because we had many resources available to help her. We even had people who could talk to her parents with her. She said, “No, you don’t understand. The people in there told me that because I am only 15 years old that my baby would be deformed and that I have to get an abortion.”
Planned Parenthood will repeatedly argue that it does not target the black community. But look at its statistics. Look at where it puts its abortion facilities. Talk to people on the front lines and listen to the real life stories of young black women being talked into abortions.
It is time for the truth. It is time for everyone in this country to understand that “Planned Parenthood has been far more lethal to black lives than the KKK ever was.” That is NOT an extreme statement; it is the truth.
Jim Sedlak is vice president of American Life League and a recognized expert on Planned Parenthood. In addition to speaking on numerous radio and television programs, he is the author of Parent Power!!—a book that instructs readers about how to get Planned Parenthood out of schools.