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During February, which is Black History Month, it is a good time to look upon the triumphs and tragedies in African American history. Movies like Harriet tell of heroes of the Underground Railroad and the struggle against slavery. It is good to honor those stories. There is, however, one tragedy of the African American community that is often overlooked: the tragedy of legalized abortion.
Abortion impacts African Americans at a higher rate than any other population group. In 2011, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released an Abortion Surveillance Report. According to that report, black women make up 14 percent of the childbearing population. Yet, 36 percent of all abortions were obtained by black women. At a ratio of 474 abortions per 1,000 live births, black women have the highest ratio of any group in the country.
Walt Blackman
When you use those percentages, it indicates that of the over 44 million abortions since the 1973 Roe vs Wade Supreme Court ruling, 19 million black babies were aborted. African Americans are just under 13 percent of United States population.
White women are five times less likely to have an abortion than black women. Perhaps it is a matter of availability. A study by Protecting Black Lives, in 2012, found that 79 percent of Planned Parenthood’s surgical abortion facilities are located within walking distance of minority communities.
In the past, we criticized the tobacco industry for targeting young people with their advertising. Recently, the nicotine vape industry has been criticized for similar practices. The prevalence of abortion providers in African American and Hispanic neighborhoods indicates the abortion industry is targeting too. It smacks of the eugenics-linked past of Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger and her views of contraception and abortion as ways of diminishing the black population.
The impacts on our black communities are hard to fathom. According to the Guttmacher Institute, which generally supports abortion, in 2011 360,000 black babies were aborted. CDC statistics for 2011 show that 287,072 black deaths occurred from all other causes excluding abortion. By these numbers, abortion is the leading cause of death among blacks.
That same year, Dr. Kermit Gosnell, an abortionist in the Philadelphia area, was arrested. His arrest followed a raid on his clinic by the Drug Enforcement Administration. Agents were acting on suspicion that he had been over prescribing oxycodone, but once inside the clinic, they were shocked to find female patients writhing on tables, in a facility that was littered in feces from a flea-ridden cat that could roam free inside the premises. Dr. Gosnell was eventually charged with murder of a woman that had died from a botched abortion, and for several “live birth” abortions where he had killed babies born-alive. It is outrageous that it took a drug raid to finally bring the authorities to look at this house of horrors.
You would think such a horrific occurrence would be a big news story. When he went to trial, the press gallery was empty. Kermit Gosnell’s abortion mill was in a black community. The news media did not care.
A movie was released about the Gosnell trial in 2018. Despite being produced by known Hollywood actor Dean Cain (Clark Kent/Superman in the show Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman), the Gosnell trial movie had a hard time finding theatres to show it.
It is undeniably good that we convey the positive stories of our community to our fellow countrymen. It is important that we pass on stories that empower us. However, it is harmful to all black Americans if we continue to let society look the other way when it comes to the devastation that political policies like abortion wreak on the black community.
Republican Walt Blackman is a member of the Arizona House of Representative representing Legislative District 6.
He uses ONE clinic as evidence that all abortion is bad?
Hell, black abortion is higher than white abortion because black poverty is higher than white poverty. The GOP is the enemy of efforts to bring down black poverty, the GOP is the center of the let em suffer and die movement.
It has been demonstrated repeatedly that high quality sex education and free quality contraceptives can reduce the abortion numbers by as much as 70%.
Unless Walt Blackman supports a program to feed all the hungry, house all the homeless, provide universal health care, tuition free public college and tech schools, provide jobs for all at a good living wage, decent retirement, meet the needs of those with disabilities, and, in general, care for the poor, he is a fraud, and has somewhere around zero chance of making significant inroads on abortion, black or white.
Thats the dumbest answer ever Bob K..!! Democrats run all the states, counties and districts with the most poverty! Abortion! And state run slavery..! And are the same people that wear blackface and allow babies to be killed even after birth. Demonic and supporters will be judged too..!
That’s a very stupid comment Bob Klahn. If a person supports a cause they work for that cause only! What you’re saying is like expecting a charity that works with cancer to also worry about heart disease, diabetes, pneumonia, measles etc. Anybody fighting the murder of innocent , pre born human beings, is fighting just that!! They are fighting for the rights of these people to be born. They aren’t responsible for everything that needs fixing, in society!!! It’s like expecting a lifeguard that saved you from drowning, to be responsible for you for the rest of your life!!! All those social problems you mentioned, have hundreds of charities working to improve them. The government and their state’s guverners are responsible for those things you mentioned too. Why on earth would you expect a pro life organization to start working on solving the homeless problem for example? That’s the remit of the charities for the homeless and government too!!!! Aburtion is wrong, that’s the bottom line. God bless.
The democratic party fought to keep slavery, began the KKK in 1866, established Jim Crowe, sabotaged reconstruction, attempted to block passage of the 13th and 14th Amendments, celebrated their own FDR as he imprisoned tens of thousands of Japanese Ammericans for being Japanese, nuked 200,000 Japanese civilians, put forth such candidates as LBJ and George Wallace, known racists and segregationists….and now, they fully support the genocide of millions of aftican-american babies via Planned Parenthood. Liberals are pious, naive dupes.
How about personal responsibility? Hers and His?
If Black Lives Matter, then what about all the abortions of black babies?
those lives mattered too, how many george floyd,s kingobamas, james, tubman, all americans in the 360,000?
Thank you Bob Klahn! Great comments. I totally agree with you.
The Question is:
If the Black Lives Mater Organization and all their supporters really care about Black Lives why do they support Roe vs Wade? Why is BLM not protesting to stop black abortions in America? It’s a FACT that of the 44 million abortions since the 1973 Roe vs Wade Supreme Court ruling, 19 million black babies were killed by abortion. Will Nancy and the Dems get on their knees for this atrocity?
Black abortion dont have nothing to do with police brutality. Is it better to have a child that police can kill later?
All lives matter and that includes those precious little black babies who never even got a chance. One person in the comments above asked if the man who wrote this was willing to do a whole bunch of things first. Tell you what…..let’s save the babies first then we can work on the other things. Does the one who commented really think all those lives don’t deserve a chance because they might grow up in an impoverished neighborhood? He needs to get off of his self-righteous BLM high-horse and address the real problem. But I’ll tell you why so many men are all for abortion. It leaves them responsibility free. No child support for them to pay. No one ever talks about that but I wonder how many of those little babies would not have been killed if they had a man who was willing to step up and be a daddy?
ManyGood Points in comments. REGINA, u hit the nail on the head (on abortion topic). Where are those infants’ fathers? Some ppl say:”Black men cant find jobs. That’s why they leave,” Wud it not be way better if they remained wth those children, help them grown- rather than abandoning them/their mothers? I also agree with Klahn, the BLM/ Abortion issues are addressed when poverty is addressed. Totally true as well.
I am just waiting for the person who will blame Trump for all this.
I never thought I would see the day when it was considered OK to murder babies, for God’s sake! The Democratic Party should be held to account for supporting the genocide of babies of whatever color.
@T Lester Black on black murders are much higher than police on black murders. You need to know there were more unarmed white men killed by police than black in 2019 by a 1:2. 10 blacks, 20 whites. Unarmed does not mean not dangerous. Most police officers are good and if you hate all cops then, well you’re stupid.
I thought long and hard about this conversation and whether or not I would respond. I am a 63 year old black woman. I think back on the time that i considered abortion and I did not live a poverty stricken life.
I lived in a neighborhood where our family was the third black family to move there. i lived between an Italian family and Jewish family. it wasn’t long before both moved out. my point is we had options. I had the option to have or not have a baby with or without the father. People have choices. Many times we would like to blame others for such issues and many times there are many who pervert the good intentions of others. who’s fault is it if abortion becomes the option? I can only say that I did have an abortion and it was my choice. I don’t know if I would have kept the child if there were no such places to safely perform them, and i do not know that holding the facility solely responsible, even if i agree that abortions are wrong now, is the answer to the problem for black, white, or red babies lives today. I do know that generational curses are inherited and we see that in the black community where slavery is a legacy as well as seeing it in the suburban white community where slave master’s mentality is inherited. It will take both to break the curses by excepting that it is time for change. Love you all
Gail….”the suburban white community where slave master’s mentality is inherited?” Are you serious?? Do you realize how racist and stereotypical you sound?? The majority of Caucasian people’s ancestors have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with slave owning. Sick and tired of all this racist B.S. fanning the flames which is doing nothing but dividing people even further.
So, please explain how BLM?
It’s a matter of moral dignity….maybe keeping your legs together instead if using abortion as birth control would be a better idea…Democrat run cities are slums…get out of there or vote conservative and you’ll see the cities Clean up…the rest of your comment is plain B.S!
I’m pregnant, 2 months away from giving birth. It breaks my heart to think of all the babies who have had their lives ended so soon. While I hate abortion I don’t think the answer is to just make it illegal. Then we will have women putting themselves in dangerous situations in order to seek out an abortion. Instead, there needs to be some sort of mandated therapy and educational classes you take if you are seeking an abortion. Educational classes geared towards educating people on the life developing within, resources they can seek out if they want to raise the child or adoption options. Abortions also shouldn’t be allowed past a certain time frame either. I think Save the Storks is a great example of an organization that is tackling the issue of abortion head-on through educating and loving the women who are seeking out abortions: https://savethestorks.com/
About 60 years ago, eugenicist Margaret Sanger and Co. convinced Martin Luther King Jr. to embrace abortion as the path to financial freedom for African Americans. How pitiful that 19 Million dead babies later (3 of Hitler’s Holocaust worth) people are still using the poverty card to support abortion. African Americans were already having an amazing impact on the planet for the better even before the civil right movement of the sixties, just check the history books. According to the census estimates of 2019, African Americans make up 13.4% of a country of 328 million, or about 44 million. That means 19 million dead babies is equivalent to 43% of the current population. So BLM rattling their sabers over the death of 1 African American at the hands of a white cop, while ignoring the millions that died from believing the now clearly demonstrated lies of one white eugenicist, sheds a lot of light on the true motives of those who would fund and promote them.
Bob Klahn. That is the logic of a twisted leftist. One who cannot look at what Planned Parenthood was founded on and where they target there clinics. Don’t be stupid. Look at the facts.
The black community has a dearth of leaders who command the national stage. If Al Sharpton is the best person that can be found to conduct a funeral for George Floyd, what a shame. The truth is, how many Martin Luther Kings never saw the light of day because of the vicious abortionist preying on black communities. Chicago black killings this weekend non-stop. More future leaders snuffed out. BLM thinks burning and looting is the answer as does the Democrat party. MLK would beg to differ.
Don’t worry Bob Klahn, your place in hell is secure.
I am reading the replies and want to die. The number 1 problem in our country are the fatherless homes. President Johnson ruined this country by giving welfare checks for every kid born without a father. It encouraged woman to have more kids. That is the generational curse that has to be broken. I get so outraged when the nation screams BLM but completely deflects from killing babies unborn or born because a mother isn’t responsible to take care of it.
How come that life doesn’t matter.
I suggest we all study God’s word, the Bible. We either choose to follow God’s word or we don’t. God can do everything but take away our free will. It’s our choice. It’s time to examine our hearts. When sin doesn’t effect us, that determines We don’t know Jesus as our Lord and Savior. He cares about every life.
Clearly, there is enough blame to go around for both political parties. What neither side wants to admit is that the “sins of the fathers” involve sins of omission (neglect of the poor and the situations that result from it) and commission (placing instruments of death in the hands of those who murder, for whatever reason). Both sides need to admit their complicity, repent, recognize that their solutions can’t work, and seek the Lord’s direction.
Proverb 24:11 Rescue those who are being taken away to death(killed).
Hold back or STOP those who are misguided to slaughter the weak and
innocent among us (unborn babies).
Psalm: 139: 13-16 For you (God) formed my inward parts, you knitted me together
in my mother’s womb. For I am (was) fearful and wonderfully made.
Exodus 20;13 YOU SHALL NOT MURDER!!!!
Isaiah 5: 20. Isaiah 33:1 Proverb 16: 16-19 I encourage everyone to read these scriptures so we can understand what the Word of Hod says ant teaches . Our opinions and thoughts doesn’t matter. All those that support these barbaric acts remember what’s waiting for you(HELL). Who gave anyone the right to choose who is to live or die? Lord have mercy on us for your righteous judgement endureth for ever.
This makes me very sad. More faith and trust in GOD and strength of family is needed. ALL lives matter even babies so isn’t it hypocritical to not support the life of a baby as well!
I will not support a party in favor of abortions nor do I want any of my income to support any abortion.
BUT I would support funding towards education, counseling…
In the end, each person will have to answer to God even those who support abortions.
If abortion ISN’T targeted towards Black and Brown, why are 79% of these clinics so close to poorer communities. 14% of black childbearing=36% of all abortions, 474 per 1000 live births.
IF PLANED PARENTHOOD, did what they SAY THEY DO, which is HELP and inform women…why is over 90% of ALL their “help” been ABORTION.
Walk into any of their “clinics” and ask for a mammogram, birth control products, information about what an abortion entails and any mental health follow up after an abortion. THESE SERVICES ARE TOTALLY LACKING.
How would we respond to shooting, 19,000,000 BLACK BABIES?? THIS IS WHAT GENOCIDE LOOKS LIKE. At THIS rate, the black population will be 4th behind, Hispanic, White and Asian.
This is such a misguided article and it’s sad because it is addressing root problems in American society like systemic racism and it’s inherent oppression that it causes on the black community; But abortion is not the cause of such problems, and the “abortion industry” is not targeting black people.
19 million black babies aborted so far. I wonder of that number, how many would have been doctors, maybe the one who would cure cancer? How many would have been physicists working in the space program? How many would have thrilled us with their athletic ability? Which one would have been the next Einstein? Which one could have written the most amazing stories? Which one would have been a great mother or father to raise responsible children? We will never know because they never had a chance!
Unfortunately, people look to justify what is done. Abortion is a sin just like any other sin. It has nothing to do with poverty, it has nothing to do with contraceptives, those who reason this way a missing the real picture. The reason babies are aborted is due to lack of personal responsibility. The man and women get together to have what they call fun and then a problem arises. Well, they are not in the position to care for this problem so they kill it. Yah, I know it is called abortion but that is just a name given to cover up murder. It amazes me that humans still partake in blood sacrifice. We killed Jesus, who knew no sin for all of ours and those who turn to abortion are killing that baby who knows no sin to cover up ours. Great choice. How about grow up and take responsibility and STOP blaming everyone and anything else.
The USA though not meant to be a theocracy is unique among the developed world on the effect of religion in public discourse and policy influence, this is noticeable in the comments where quotations from the Bible are being invoked where a rational argument would suffice; am based I East Africa so I maynot be familiar with the more nuanced details of American life what amazes me is that anyone based in a first world country can get an “unwanted pregnancy” with the pervasive contraceptive options they have, in my country since the early 2000s unwanted pregnancies that lead to crude abortions have been greatly reduced due to efforts to make contraception ubiquitous preventing pregnancy as a consequence of intercouse
This whole topic just sickens me!
Abortion has been used by many as a easy out after a sex night-
I unfortunately know two woman who abused their “right to abortions” in the 1990’s.
One 24 yr old I knew had 12 abortions and another had 6!!!!!!
Just because they didn’t want to upset a guy and suggest using a condom!!!!! What is wrong with women today????? It is so abused!!! When do these people get sterilization? Obviously they are not learning anything about birth control or what the procedure of an actual abortion is- Can you imagine having 12 abortions by the time you are 24????I had always been pro choice but after learning that about people I new from College it made me sick