Black Pro-Lifer Confused by NAACP's Pro-Abortion Stance
by Rusty Pugh and Jody Brown
March 22, 2004
(AgapePress) - A black pro-life activist says it is incomprehensible that a group that claims to champion the right of African Americans supports abortion, which is the number-one killer of black people.Abortion kills more blacks than all other leading causes of death combined. Yet the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) has announced that its board voted to take what it calls a "pro-choice" position on the abortion issue. The NAACP's board of directors, at its February 21 meeting, endorsed the principle that "women have the right to equal access to family planning materials, information, and choice when it comes to birth control."
The resolution went on to say that "a woman denied the right to control her own body is denied equal protection of the law, a right the NAACP has fought for and defended for nearly 100 years." Julian Bond, chairman of the NAACP board of directors, calls the right to abortion "an issue of equal rights." This is the first time in the 95-year history of the organization that it has taken a formal position on the issue of abortion.
Since Roe v. Wade was handed down by the Supreme Court in 1973, more than 44 million babies have been killed. Roughly one-third of those babies were African American. Day Gardner, director of Black Americans for Life, says it is sad that most black women believe the lies of the pro-abortion groups -- and the NAACP, she says, is an accomplice to this deception.
"I think we all know that abortion occurs in all races, but we -- as black people -- have always been or always considered ourselves culturally pro-life," Gardner explains. "Most of us have very strong religious backgrounds; and I think because of that, we tend to think it just can't be affecting our community in those numbers. I think it's time for a wakeup call."
Rev. Johnny Hunter of the Life Education and Resource Network (LEARN) in Virginia backs up the claim that abortion is the number-one killer of blacks in America. "We're losing our people at the rate of 1,452 a day," he says. "That's just pure genocide. There's no other word for it."
Hunter also takes issue with Bond's contention that the right to abortion is an issue of equal rights. "We're destroying the destiny and purpose of others who should be here," Hunter says. "Who knows the musicians we've lost? Who knows the great leaders the black community has really lost? Who knows what great minds of economic power people have lost? What great teachers?"
According to the National Right to Life Committee, African Americans make up about 13 percent of the U.S. population, yet black women have an abortion rate three times higher than white women -- a rate acknowledged by the Alan Guttmacher Institute, an arm of Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
Also, more than 70 percent of abortion clinics in America are located in minority communities. Hunter says he has personally observed the presence of Planned Parenthood in the black community today. "When I travel around the country, I can only think of one abortion clinic [I've seen] in a predominantly white neighborhood. The majority of clinics are in black neighborhoods."
