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The TownhallSocial issues

Abortion is stifling the black community

By Celeste Duffie

Editor’s note: The opinions expressed here are those of the authors. View more opinion on ScoonTV.

“The thief cometh not, but that he may steal, and kill, and destroy. I came that they may have life and may have it abundantly.” – John 10:10

White people’s preoccupation

February marks Black History Month, the time of year when black Americans proudly celebrate our contributions to the country. We focus the nation’s attention on the many achievements made by black Americans and commemorate our role in the American story. Black Americans tend to put their best foot forward when people are watching, which may be why we are curiously silent about the elephant in the room – legalized abortion. 

The Supreme Court’s ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade exposed a growing schism among black people regarding abortion and its impact on the black community. For 50 years, abortion as a federal right was just a matter of fact – at least three generations of black Americans accepted abortion. In fact, we didn’t overthink it. To us, abortion seemed like a preoccupation of white people. As such, the impact of abortion on our community alluded our attention.  

However, once Dobbs v. Jackson removed abortion as a federal right and returned the decision to the states, black Americans were forced to take a fresh look at abortion – and what we found was not pretty. 

Black Womb Lives Matter

The public support for the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement was instantaneous and expansive. BLM animated both the activist and militant cohorts within the black community. Like most anti-white and anti-capitalist movements, BLM ironically gained legitimacy through collaboration with white allies and was almost entirely funded by capitalist corporations.

As a dominant social movement, BLM’s rhetoric centered on the preservation of black lives at the hands of police. However, the intensity of this rhetoric was set against the discovery of the enormous number of black lives lost to abortion. For some black Americans, it became increasingly difficult to reconcile the white liberals’ devotion to the Black Lives Matter movement, given their insistence that access to abortion be offered to black women.

Since 1973, black women have had millions of abortions, which is one reason the black population hasn’t grown beyond 14%. Even though the black population was 12.8% in 2005, it’s only projected to grow to just over 13% by 2050.

In the words of Pastor Clenard Howard Childress Jr., “The most dangerous place for an African American is in the womb.”

Some black Americans began asking a simple question – do black people truly love black lives? 

Geo-targeting

In the gang culture of the 1980s and ‘90s, the proliferation of liquor and gun stores in poor black communities was disturbing. Comparably, we see a similar expansion of Planned Parenthood facilities in our communities, making black Americans increasingly uneasy. 

According to PolitiFact, “Protectingblacklife.org features a map of what it says are Planned Parenthood surgical abortion facilities that are located “within walking distance of African American or Hispanic/Latino neighborhoods.” The site fact-checked the claims, however, and found “fewer than one in 10 clinics were located in mostly Black neighborhoods and that six in 10 abortion providers were located in neighborhoods where more than half of residents are white.”

Regardless of the numbers, the prevalence of abortion facilities in minority communities has spawned all sorts of conspiracy theories. The most extreme regards abortion as a form of black genocide. On its face, the preposterousness of this claim could be easily dismissed if it were not for the pesky issue of Margaret Sanger.

Margaret Sanger comes out of the closet

Efforts from abortionists to keep the history of Margret Sanger in the closet continue to fail. Sanger is a fascinating figure whose words live far beyond the grave. 

Margaret Sanger firmly believed in the formation of a utopian society. However, she held that such a society could not accommodate the biological insults of people living with physical and mental defects. As a result, she founded the Birth Control League, later renamed Planned Parenthood, to promote a cruel form of American eugenics.

Peer-reviewed journals and PolitiFact itself argue that Sanger’s actions were not malevolently directed toward black people. Other critics deny this and say her writings suggested that she supported birth control as a eugenics zealot and an ardent racist. 

In December of 1939, Sanger wrote, “The most successful educational approach to the Negro is through a religious appeal. We don’t want the word to get out that we want to exterminate the Negro population, and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members.”

Supporters and historians argue that Sanger was actually “advocating for Black doctors and ministers to play leadership roles in the project to avoid misunderstandings — she was not suggesting genocide.” Critics don’t quite see it that way.

Whether she had malevolent intent or was a fierce supporter of the birth control movement is irrelevant. Today, almost 50% of all black babies conceived are aborted. Compare that to the 3,446 black people lynched in the eight decades between 1882 and 1968.  If extinguishing the black population was her goal, Sanger can boast an impressive achievement.

Reproductive injustice

Liberal white women are at the frontlines in the fight for reproductive justice. Unfortunately, their fight for reproductive justice seems exclusively for black women. According to a February 2020 Arizona Capitol Times article, “White women are five times less likely to have an abortion than black women.” Thus, white women do not practice what they preach.

It is apparent that white women are untroubled about the devastating impact that abortion has on the black community. Further, if the abortion rate remains the same, blacks are certain to be politically powerless and economically disadvantaged in perpetuity. 

Deceptive tactics have been used to keep black women in check for decades. Propaganda glorifying abortion as an act of strength and independence is tantamount to hooking women on smoking with the “You’ve come a long way, baby” Virginia Slim cigarette campaign. Both attempt to glorify actions that have devastating consequences.

Manipulations of this kind have duped black women into acting against their individual and communal interests in service to the liberal orthodoxy, which claims to love black lives – only if liberals can limit the number of black lives available to love.

Beyond maintaining tight control over the black population, liberal activists also provide cover for their most sinister accomplice: the black preacher. 

The Church of What’s Happening Now

An unholy alliance has formed between white liberals and black preachers.

Not too long ago, many blacks were conservative and Christian. As such, they were very skeptical of abortion. For example, in a 1977 Right to Life News article on abortion, Reverend Jesse Jackson wrote, “[from] my perspective, human life is the highest good,” indicating his opposition to abortion. 

You would be hard-pressed to hear this position coming from today’s pulpits. Likewise, you would be hard-pressed to still hear this kind of clarity from Jesse.

During his 1988 Presidential run, Reverend Jackson reversed his views on abortion and began supporting federally funded abortion. He no longer believed that moral positions should be imposed on public policy.

Clearly, Margaret Sanger correctly identified the black preacher as likely to betray the Gospel and defend abortion, an anti-God, anti-human procedure.

The betrayal of the teachings of the Gospel has consequences. The black church as an institution has faded from prominence. Many blame the church’s fall from grace on preachers who embrace moral secularism over traditional theology. Today, many prominent Pastors like Jamal Bryant and Senator Rev. Dr. Raphael Warnock are seen as religious alchemists whose Sunday formula is one-part Gospel mixed with two-parts social justice.

Remaining tethered to the liberal orthodoxy in defiance of foundational Christian principles makes such religious figures appear suspicious in the eyes of many within the black community. Maybe now they will take notice of the lack of butts in the pews and coins in the church’s coffers as a direct rebuke of their weekly impersonations as true preachers of the Gospel.

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Celeste Duffie

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