Abortion has been and still is one of the most controversial issues in America. Since the Roe v. Wade decision 37 years ago, pro-life groups and pro-choice groups have put out thousands of mediums of propaganda. Pro-life groups have done nearly anything and everything in their power to make abortion illegal. Abortion is still legal in American but pro-life groups have recently taken a different route to make abortion illegal. Although this battle has been a heated issue for years, it was not until recently another factor was added into the equation: about a month and a half ago, Georgia Right to Life and the Radiance Foundation brought race into the picture. This issue has gained strong interest by the media. I have chosen to include three different articles (ABC, AJC, AJC) all covering the same topic, all from different perspectives.
At the beginning of February the Radiance Foundation, funded by GRTL started putting up billboards in predominantly black neighborhoods of Atlanta that read: “Black Children are an Endangered Species”. The sign featured a black baby and at the bottom was the group’s website TooManyAborted.com. The website contains the statistics on abortions in America as well as in the state of Georgia. The most recent numbers were from 2006 and in that year there were an estimated 1.2 million abortions. With the U.S. population just under 40 thousand, 13 percent are black and are responsible for about 39 percent of those 1.2 million abortions. Another outrageous statistic on the website showed that there were about 16 thousand more abortions than deaths in 2006 among the black population. The numbers in Georgia are even higher with 58 percent of all abortions from black women. The statistics are numerous and they all support the anti-abortion cause.
If the statistics and billboard weren’t enough, the website uses the “Negro Project” and planned parenthood to their advantage. In the early 20th century Margaret Sanger started planned parenthood clinics. Sanger promoted eugenics and used her clinics to get black women to have abortions and thus decreasing the black population. Now almost a century later, pro-life groups such as GRLT claims the PPFA is still racist and endorses eugenics. Catherine Davis, director of minority outreach for GRTL suggests that these clinics are attempting “to control the birthrate of the African-American community” because of the lack of clinics in the suburbs. 94 percent of all birth control clinics in the U.S. are in urban communities where the population is mostly black. GRTL and the Radiance Foundation have thoroughly used the statistics and the “Negro Project” to put themselves out there as the “ the last line of defense against a widespread plot to wipe out black people”.
Following these provocative billboards have been legislation that would make it illegal for “a woman to have an abortion based on the race or sex of the unborn child.” I wouldn’t expect this bill to be passed for a number of reasons that are mentioned in the articles. The most important, as Lynn Hogue, law professor at GSU points out, the reasons behind a woman’s abortion are “constitutionally irrelevant”.
The goal of this Endangered Species Project is to eliminate abortion in America. Bringing race into the issue and specifically targeting black females is just as manipulating as what they claim the planned parenthood organizations are doing. Crews, Arcana, and Muscio would all agree that the bottom line isn’t about the propaganda, or statistics, but about the mother. Crews makes it especially clear that resources and information must be available and easily accessible to all women. Nowhere does she specify that the requirement to receive this information is that the woman must be white. It can be assumed that this idea of white privilege, as described by Peggy McIntosh, can also be relevant to these outrageous statistics regarding black women and abortion.
Often times, pro-life groups tend to portray their ideals as the “right” or “ethical” way of doing things. However, ridiculing women because of the choices they make, especially intimate choices such as abortion is nowhere near right or ethical. Women who get pregnant don’t want to be persuaded to have or abort the baby, they just need to be supported. Pro-life groups claim that women are “duped” by pro-choice propaganda, but by calling it “the Darfur of America” they do the same thing with guilt and shame.
Unless you have experienced what these women go through you can never know what it is like and how hard the choice can be. The website has abortionists speaking out how bad they feel for helping aborting so many babies but it still ignores what the actual mother went through. The two contributors are both well educated black people who have been very successful. While they are both black, they still may never know what it is like for the black population living in the projects struggling to survive.
At the beginning of February the Radiance Foundation, funded by GRTL started putting up billboards in predominantly black neighborhoods of Atlanta that read: “Black Children are an Endangered Species”. The sign featured a black baby and at the bottom was the group’s website TooManyAborted.com. The website contains the statistics on abortions in America as well as in the state of Georgia. The most recent numbers were from 2006 and in that year there were an estimated 1.2 million abortions. With the U.S. population just under 40 thousand, 13 percent are black and are responsible for about 39 percent of those 1.2 million abortions. Another outrageous statistic on the website showed that there were about 16 thousand more abortions than deaths in 2006 among the black population. The numbers in Georgia are even higher with 58 percent of all abortions from black women. The statistics are numerous and they all support the anti-abortion cause.
If the statistics and billboard weren’t enough, the website uses the “Negro Project” and planned parenthood to their advantage. In the early 20th century Margaret Sanger started planned parenthood clinics. Sanger promoted eugenics and used her clinics to get black women to have abortions and thus decreasing the black population. Now almost a century later, pro-life groups such as GRLT claims the PPFA is still racist and endorses eugenics. Catherine Davis, director of minority outreach for GRTL suggests that these clinics are attempting “to control the birthrate of the African-American community” because of the lack of clinics in the suburbs. 94 percent of all birth control clinics in the U.S. are in urban communities where the population is mostly black. GRTL and the Radiance Foundation have thoroughly used the statistics and the “Negro Project” to put themselves out there as the “ the last line of defense against a widespread plot to wipe out black people”.
Following these provocative billboards have been legislation that would make it illegal for “a woman to have an abortion based on the race or sex of the unborn child.” I wouldn’t expect this bill to be passed for a number of reasons that are mentioned in the articles. The most important, as Lynn Hogue, law professor at GSU points out, the reasons behind a woman’s abortion are “constitutionally irrelevant”.
The goal of this Endangered Species Project is to eliminate abortion in America. Bringing race into the issue and specifically targeting black females is just as manipulating as what they claim the planned parenthood organizations are doing. Crews, Arcana, and Muscio would all agree that the bottom line isn’t about the propaganda, or statistics, but about the mother. Crews makes it especially clear that resources and information must be available and easily accessible to all women. Nowhere does she specify that the requirement to receive this information is that the woman must be white. It can be assumed that this idea of white privilege, as described by Peggy McIntosh, can also be relevant to these outrageous statistics regarding black women and abortion.
Often times, pro-life groups tend to portray their ideals as the “right” or “ethical” way of doing things. However, ridiculing women because of the choices they make, especially intimate choices such as abortion is nowhere near right or ethical. Women who get pregnant don’t want to be persuaded to have or abort the baby, they just need to be supported. Pro-life groups claim that women are “duped” by pro-choice propaganda, but by calling it “the Darfur of America” they do the same thing with guilt and shame.
Unless you have experienced what these women go through you can never know what it is like and how hard the choice can be. The website has abortionists speaking out how bad they feel for helping aborting so many babies but it still ignores what the actual mother went through. The two contributors are both well educated black people who have been very successful. While they are both black, they still may never know what it is like for the black population living in the projects struggling to survive.
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