Is abortion a racist plot? Of course not
WASHINGTON — Perhaps members of the anti-abortion movement are growing a bit desperate. Though they’ve managed to crimp women’s reproductive rights through decades of legislative maneuvering and extra-legal harassment, they still cannot overturn Roe v. Wade, the historic 1973 Supreme Court decision. Nor have they moved public opinion much: A majority of Americans still believe that current law should stand.
Perhaps that’s why some factions in the “pro-life” crusade are professing a newfound concern for the well-being of black children. Perhaps that’s why “racism” has become the battle cry of anti-abortion groups whose members — overwhelmingly white, conservative and Republican — like to think that racism no longer exists.
Georgia’s largest anti-abortion group, Georgia Right to Life, is presenting itself as the last line of defense against a widespread plot to wipe out black people — a pogram of sorts. The group has mounted billboards throughout black Atlanta neighborhoods, claiming that “Black children are an endangered species” because of abortions.
While anti-abortion activists have long derided Margaret Sanger, considered the mother of modern family planning, for her endorsement of eugenics, they have more recently taken aim at such mainstream organizations as the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, claiming it, too, is run by bigots. Two years ago, a faith-based group with ties to black clergy sent a letter to the Congressional Black Caucus denouncing Planned Parenthood for its “racist and eugenic goals.”
Well, paranoid theories are usually impervious to facts, but let’s try some facts, anyway. Despite the obstacles many black children face on the road to a successful adulthood — poverty, crime, poor schools — their numbers are not threatened. Black women have a higher birth rate than the national average.
But it is also true that black women use abortion services disproportionately. According to the Alan Guttmacher Institute, a non-profit that advocates for reproductive health, the abortion rate for black American women is almost five times that for white women. About one-third of all abortions are obtained by white women and about 37 percent by black women (who account for less than seven percent of the population), according to Susan Cohen of the non-profit Alan Guttmacher Institute, which advocates for reproductive health.
Those numbers are certainly troubling. But are racists persuading black women to have abortions? Is there some group of grim executioners looking to carry out a shadowy genocide?
That’s not only nutty; it’s also insulting. It’s both sexist and racist to suggest that black women don’t have the intellectual and emotional firepower to make their own decisions.
(Largely owing to easier-to-use contraceptives, abortion rates have been declining for the last 25 years, black women’s rates falling along with those of other ethnic groups. However, Latinas and black women still terminate pregnancies at higher rates than white women.)
“The truth is that behind virtually every abortion is an unintended pregnancy. . .Because black women as a group want the same number of children as white women, but have so many more unintended pregnancies, they are more likely than white women to terminate an unintended pregnancy by abortion to avoid an unwanted birth,” Cohen wrote in a paper entitled, “Abortion and Women of Color: The Bigger Picture.”
If conservatives are sincere about curbing abortions — among all women, white, black and brown — they should support efforts to broaden women’s health care, which includes reproductive health care. Easy access to contraceptives would encourage their use, thereby reducing unintended pregnancies — and abortions.
“The health disparities for low-income women and women of color are enormous,” noted Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood, which provides full-service reproductive health care — including non-controversial procedures such as annual pelvic exams — to women who cannot get it elsewhere.
But social and religious conservatives have been fighting health care reform, which would broaden access to reproductive health care, with the passion they normally reserve for bashing Roe v Wade. That’s why it’s hard to believe they really care about black women — or their children.
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276 comments Add your comment
Peadawg
March 17th, 2010
10:46 am
Granny, Lawyer Tim’s comment at the bottom of http:// firstread. msnbc. msn. com/ archive/ 2010/03/09/2222673. aspx is pretty interesting.
barbaric
March 17th, 2010
10:47 am
Even after you remove any religious arguments. Abortion is still a barbaric act for a civilized society to practice.
FINALLY!!!
March 17th, 2010
10:47 am
Repost from CTucker – I don’t know what time warp you’re stuck in, but there are NO QUOTAS anywhere. There never have been actually, but there was enough talk of “goals” for affirmative action opponents to define them as “quotas.” There is no longer even any affirmative action. Come out of the ’70s.
Thank you!!! You would be surprised how may people really think quotas and affirmative action are law. Like a written law that requires all business owners, schools, etc. to have a certain amount of Black people. Not even minorities (women, asians) but Black people. LOL. Thanks for TRYING to educate.
Granny Godzilla
March 17th, 2010
10:47 am
Beaves
yep, that pre-60’s world was really cool man!
the pill was illegal, women who worked outside the home were looked down on, black folks got beaten or lynched for just trying to register to vote, school kids were taught they could be safe from atomic bombs by hiding under their desks, doctors told us how good smoking was for us…..
grand times eh?
Peadawg
March 17th, 2010
10:47 am
HDB, it’s funny how the people who are against an amendment outlawing an abortion, i.e. government controlling our lives, are also for this health care bill and more regulations. just sayin…..
Keep up the good fight!
March 17th, 2010
10:49 am
Pea and others…. just ignore the hard questions and consistency.
Anti-abortionists are also against the death penalty?
What about the young girl who is raped?
What about the mother who medical experts determine will likely die in child birth? Is life so valuable that you will sentence her to death.
Are there exceptions to your “rule of life” that permits abortions?
If life is so valuable that it must be born, then to allow a child to die or suffer from lack of healthcare after birth must also be part of that value system, correct?
Bill Hartzell
March 17th, 2010
10:49 am
hates kids- I don’t see what your problem w/ Juliana is- looks like a beautiful little girl who is enjoying life to me. Oh, btw, I didn’t see anything on her homepage about it costing the taxpayer anything for her surgeries, so, really, where do you get the right to judge or say her parents were wrong?
Keep up the good fight!
March 17th, 2010
10:51 am
Pea… it funny how you ignore that the bill already provides that no federal dollars go to the funding of abortion and that you dont care about the lives of those children after their births. …..just sayin
ELVISINTHEHOUSE
March 17th, 2010
10:51 am
Ms tucker,i think you have struck a nerve to the white folk.Now the KKK is about to bombard this column because you mentioned black folk and racism in the same sentence.Its funny where the word racist come from to begin with.If they would have left them black folk alone and all men was really created equal,then racism would’nt even be a factor now would it.Im a white guy and im married to a latino,but when it comes to blacks and any other race for that matter i don’t dislike them because there skin is dark.If your a black person and speak up for what you think is right,you will be cut down with hatred from you fellow white american.white folk love there dogs and cats more than a black person.Its true but they(most whites)will never admit it.
Whatever
March 17th, 2010
10:51 am
@ Peadawg – It is funny that the people who are for the death penalty and support the DENIAL of access to education and healthcare are against a woman making her own decision as to whether to terminate a pregnancy or not.
Trust and believe that if men had to carry children there would be dead babies lining the highways.
Whatever
March 17th, 2010
10:52 am
@ Bill H – Exactly!!
Granny Godzilla
March 17th, 2010
10:53 am
Peadawg
Lawyer Tim. Is that like Plumber Joe?
Peadawg
March 17th, 2010
10:56 am
Whatever, for the record I’m against the death penalty. Who are we to decide who lives and who dies?
Beaves
March 17th, 2010
10:57 am
Granny G,
like I said we should have had legal abortion then, then we would not have the issues we have now. I am glad we agree. By the way abortion should not be used for birth control; these people need to learn where babies come from and how to stop it before it happens. What a stupid thought that is…
Peadawg
March 17th, 2010
10:59 am
“By the way abortion should not be used for birth control”
AMEN!
Granny Godzilla
March 17th, 2010
11:02 am
Peadawg
and the birth control pill? are you against that as well?
it’s an abortive.
and invitro? what do you feel about tossing frozen embryos in the land fill?
An American
March 17th, 2010
11:02 am
@ Tar and Feather
that was an interesting article. if you haven’t done so already, read A Mother’s Ordeal by Stephen W. Mosher.
as for how you feel about abortion in general, i disagree with you. are you aware that the fourth week after conception that the baby’s heart is beating? at the sixth week the baby starts to move. (mayoclinic website )
i think that the worst part of the abortion debate is that people that are for abortion continually dehumanize the child with terms such as “fetus” and arguments that this is not a human being until he or she takes their first breath outside of the womb. If someone doesn’t want to have the baby, just say so. Let’s not try to obscure what is really taking place with misdirection – the intentional cessation of a human life.
Granny Godzilla
March 17th, 2010
11:03 am
Beaves
but then we’d still have the issues we did then…..and a number of them sucked.
Keep up the good fight!
March 17th, 2010
11:03 am
hdb…since you agree that abortions should be permitted in some circumstances, then you must agree that the claims this is about “murder”, “life at all cost” and “abortion is wrong always” are not applicable. You concede that choice should be permitted but you want to limit the situations where choice is permitted. So the real discussion should be about when is choice permitted and the pejorative comments are out of place. Perhaps more people should realize that this is not a right or wrong issue but one with nuances and subleties that need to be addressed. It certainly is not a race issue in that it is a “plot against a race” as the original opinion points out.
I hate kids
March 17th, 2010
11:03 am
Bill, think of the life Juliana is doomed to have. Her disabilities & health problems are horrendous. And what will happen when she reaches her teens & the hormones kick in? She’ll have to watch her classmates have normal, happy lives & know that will always be barred to her. Imagine if she was your daughter, & every night you heard her bitterly crying herself to sleep & praying for God to strike her dead. How would that make you feel? Yeah yeah, I know, in a perfect world, some wonderful young man will be able to see past her face, but, you see, Bill, we don’t live in a perfect world plus her health problems go way way deeper than her outer appearance. After years of terrible treatment, abuse & discrimination, that poor girl will end up killing herself. Actually, no, scratch that. We live in such a superficial world that some idiot will do the job FOR her.
bob
March 17th, 2010
11:03 am
KEEP UP YOUR RIGHT, Ms Palin should have done a better job if she could have. Or perhaps her daughter just chose to do it, irregardless,it is now her responsibility to care for that child period, not yours or mine. I have no issue at all with tax dollars being used for education of our children. Education to me is still the 3 R’s ( convience of our discussion )which along with discipline, responsibilty and accountability kept this nation on course with values and morals. In my view it is NOT the school systems place to teach my child sex education, self responsibility and accountability for their actions regarding sex. I assume you think it is the school systems place to teach sex education to children and if that is correct and you had a daughter in school and the teachers view was it is ok for young people to have sex would you agree with them and tell your child it is ok for her or him to have sex since the teacher said so?
HDB
March 17th, 2010
11:05 am
Peadawg
March 17th, 2010
10:43 am
“The problem is that racism STILL exists…..some people wish to IGNORE that fact!!”
You mean the people who don’t see black or white? The people who just sees others as equal human beings? Sad to say not many exist.
‘Dawg, that’s desirable….and I pray for that day to occur; the problem still exists, however…particularly in the South, that minorities are seen as non-existent….particularly with Republicans. Racism between Caucasians and African Americans is less of a factor the farther west I’ve travelled…..but here…in my home town….it’s a perdominant factor..politically, econically, socially…….
Understand about people wanting government out of their lives….but voting for HCR…but it’s needed to ensure that all people have affordable access to health care!!
Peadawg
March 17th, 2010
11:05 am
“and the birth control pill? are you against that as well?
it’s an abortive.”
LOL! Please don’t go there. That’s like saying people shouldn’t masturbate.
Granny Godzilla
March 17th, 2010
11:10 am
Peadawg
well do you?
and i’m not asking about your mastabatory habits…..
fultonrighty
March 17th, 2010
11:10 am
Why are Planned Parenthood’s abortion clinics so handy to the African American community?
HDB
March 17th, 2010
11:12 am
Keep up the good fight!
March 17th, 2010
11:03 am
hdb…since you agree that abortions should be permitted in some circumstances, then you must agree that the claims this is about “murder”, “life at all cost” and “abortion is wrong always” are not applicable. You concede that choice should be permitted but you want to limit the situations where choice is permitted. So the real discussion should be about when is choice permitted and the pejorative comments are out of place. Perhaps more people should realize that this is not a right or wrong issue but one with nuances and subleties that need to be addressed. It certainly is not a race issue in that it is a “plot against a race” as the original opinion points out.
Can’t disagree with you….abortion is a nuanced situation for those who need it; many people see it in only a life and death issue…infanticide; others see it as a denial of choice. What people need to understand is this:
1) Abortion IS a legal, medical procedure…..protected by law
2) Abortion IS a personal decision, not one that is made by those OUTSIDE of the situation
3) The rate of abortions should be reduced
As a man, I don’t want abortion criminalized…but I do not have the right to determine for a woman what her rights are pertaining to HER body. What people are against is tax-payer funding for abortions. In the majority of cases, I can understand….but there are limited cases where it may occur…and that flexibility should not be denied!!
Keep up the good fight!
March 17th, 2010
11:12 am
bob, you missed the point about education. But i fear you will never understand it. But your view on what is taught in our schools about “sex ed” is disturbing. I dont think it is okay to teach children “its okay for you to have sex.” Time for a reality check! In fact, sex ed is about teaching here is what sex is about: STDs, child birth, the risks. It teaches children in a world with sexting and kids not even in their teens having sex about responsibility for their actions. Teachers do not educate that it is okay to have sex. It counters television programming that shows sex without real impact or consequences.
Kamchak
March 17th, 2010
11:12 am
these people need to learn where babies come from and how to stop it before it happens.
Now…if only there were institutions set up, where children could attend five days a week and be instructed in a structured environment–perhaps a series of instruction sessions about health issues….
RACE CARD
March 17th, 2010
11:12 am
Playing the race card is an idiomatic phrase that refers to the act of bringing the issue of race or racism into a debate, perhaps to obfuscate the matter.[citation needed] Playing the race card is amplified in socio-political systems where individuals know they may be formally awarded special access to rights and resources, based upon their membership of a racial group.[citation needed] Race card is a metaphorical reference to card games in which a trump card may be used to gain an advantage.
Granny Godzilla
March 17th, 2010
11:14 am
kamchack
brilliant!
Malcolm XXX
March 17th, 2010
11:17 am
Black children are hated – by Black society !
Bill Hartzell
March 17th, 2010
11:19 am
Hate kids- I have listened to a child pray at night for God to strike them dead- my youngest son was sodomized at the age of 11 by a family friends son, unbeknownst to my wife or I or our friends until 6 years after it happened. Our son wouldn’t tell us why he wanted God to kill him, only that he wished for it. We told him the same thing any parent who loves their children and God, that God loves them no matter what- they look like, have done, have had done to them, etc., and that God has a plan and a purpose for their life and that what the enemy plans for evil, God will use it for good. If her parents are the good and loving parents that by all appearances they seem to be, they will help Juliana through all of the difficulties that she will face and help her to not be afraid to live her life in spite of her differences and challenges. This what ALL ‘good’ parents do for their children.
DBH
March 17th, 2010
11:20 am
The hypocrisy of pro-abortionists is laughable. They’ll argue until they’re blue in the face that a woman has the so-called “reproductive right” to abort (i.e. “kill”) their unborn child, while at the same time totally glossing over the fact that had they themselves been aborted, they obviously wouldn’t be here to tout such a position.
The same applies to President Obama. The man supports abortion with no exceptions, but has he ever thought for one second that had HIS own mother chosen to abort him, he would not have had the opportunity to achieve the historic accomplishment he did in becoming the first black President of the United States?
Who knows how many other “firsts” are being murdered each day in the name of “reproductive rights”?
Scout
March 17th, 2010
11:21 am
It’s a plot all right but not by liberals or conservatives but by Satan himself ………………..
Ms. Tucker ………. I’m betting you used to sing this ……….. how sad what we do to our unborn children ……………
“Jesus loves the little children,
all the children of the world.
Red and yellow, black and white,
they are precious in His sight.
Jesus loves the little children of the world.”
bob
March 17th, 2010
11:22 am
Keep Up I guess we will have to agree to disagree on what should or should not be taught in a public school instead of a parents home. I do appreciate your view though. Happy St Pattys Day to you and yours!
fultonrighty
March 17th, 2010
11:24 am
In Georgia African American have 57% of the abortions done each year. Nationally 40% of black women’s pregnancies end in aborting the child. Isn’t something racial is going on?
Google “too many aborted” to find a good website about this.
Bubba
March 17th, 2010
11:24 am
One of the most frustrating things in arguing against abortion is the people who say, “It’s not your child, why do you care?” That attitude permeates the pro-abortion argument and it’s very distressing that people actually believe that; because if the unborn child is a human life, as anti-abortionists believe, then it is EVERYONE’S concern, just as it is everyone’s concern, or should be, when a child is killed after birth. I don’t know whether the pro-abortion people don’t get that point or just don’t want to get it. I can actually accept as a logical argument if someone says: “It’s not a human life, so it should be legal to kill it.” I disagree with them, but at least it’s a logical argument. That’s a much different argument than, “I think abortion is a bad thing, but it should be everyone’s choice” or “it’s none of your business.” That’s akin to the argument, “I would never own a slave, but I believe slavery should be legal for others.” I don’t expect an answer to this question from very many people, but I’ll ask it anyway: If it could be proven – don’t worry about how it would be proven, but if it could, would you still support legalized abortion?
Peadawg
March 17th, 2010
11:24 am
“Peadawg
well do you?”
You couldn’t gather that my answer is ‘no’ from my response? geeze.
DBH
March 17th, 2010
11:25 am
@ Scout: On the contrary. Ms. Tucker probably sang it this way:
“Jesus loves the little children,
all the children of the world.
Red and yellow, black and white,
But not above a woman’s rights.
Jesus loves the little children of the world.”
Bubba
March 17th, 2010
11:25 am
proven that a fetus is a human life, I meant to say.
TnGelding
March 17th, 2010
11:26 am
Granny Godzilla
March 17th, 2010
10:04 am
Sorry to hear that, but enjoy your “vacation.” Give him a big hug from us!
How is the grandchild?
I hate kids
March 17th, 2010
11:26 am
Howe awful about your son, Bill!!! Christian counseling may have helped him. I hope he’s OK now. Juliana’s parents seem to love her, but as someone who had suffered from a disfigurement, NOTHING, but NOTHING will take the place of a normal, love-filled life, if that is what one wants. Luckily, mine was minor & was fixed, all’s cool now, but Juliana’s case is more severe than anything I’ve ever seen or experienced. To tell a girl like that “Yeah, no man will ever look at you without gagging, screaming in horror, etc, but don’t worry, God is there to see you through a lesser type of life” is something I, if in her shoes, would find insulting, demeaning, patronizing & placatory. Luckily, you don’t know what it’s like to be hated, beat up & reviled for something you can’t help & didn’t ask for so it’s a little hard for you to judge???
Keep up the good fight!
March 17th, 2010
11:27 am
hdb…I think you are wrong. I appreciate your acceptance of the nuances. Numerous groups are just against abortion completely no matter what. But again, where in the current health bill is there any proposal to use federal dollars to pay for abortion. It is not in there.
But at the same time….. since you acknowledge that a raped 14 girl should not be forced to have that child, does it really make sense to say that she is entitled to an abortion only if she is rich enough to pay to have that choice. If you accept her right to chose, should you not also say that for the victim of rape, if they cannot afford it, the taxpayers will pay for your child or for your abortion.
Is she entitled to heathcare from complications arising from an abortion? Are women permitted to purchase insurance policies that include a right to a medical abortion if the women pay a separate premium for that coverage but federal dollars are used to pay for the portions of the policy that do not cover abortion?
Leigh Roix
March 17th, 2010
11:37 am
I think we’re getting to the point where more rappers are in jail than not – maybe this will be the tipping point and this poor excuse for “music” crap will finally disappear, along with its influence on a certain demographic.
HDB
March 17th, 2010
11:37 am
Keep up the good fight! – I also said that there may be circumstances where under the necessities of health care that the funding may have to come from the federal government!! It’s more of the “abortion on demand” by those who have the capability to pay is what I believe most people are against!!
david wayne osedach
March 17th, 2010
11:40 am
The statstics are alarming. The statistics don’t lie.
Keep up the good fight!
March 17th, 2010
11:40 am
Bubba…. you mischaracterize the prochoice movement. To accept your premise that a fetus is life and therefore due a right to live simply distorts the argument. We can argue about when does a fetus become life..indeed that is what Justice Brennan discussed in Roe v Wade in his concurrence. But if want to argue a fetus is life (ingoring that you have not defined what is life–a definition that has changed as our medical knowledge has grown) and to be protected, then why are you not for protecting that life after birth. Why should people die from lack of heathcare? from death penalty? why is any death which could have been prevented acceptable?
Many prochoice supporters are not for unlimited abortions just as some who are prolife are not against all abortions. In fact, some prochoice supporters may be more willing to have tighter regulatons on abortions if there were better programs to provide choices, education and options to avoid pregnancy. If you make the argument that no fetus may be aborted, there is an absurdity to argue that society must protect that fetus but at the same time society should not be acting to prevent unwanted pregnancy.
DBH
March 17th, 2010
11:42 am
@ Leigh: While it is true that there are “seemingly” more rappers in jail these days, the problem is that most of them receive only one-year sentences which, unfortunately, isn’t quite long enough to expedite the demise of rap/hip-hop. Longer jail sentences might help in that regard. LOL!
Bubba
March 17th, 2010
11:46 am
Thanks for answering, Keep Up, but it’s you who mischaracterize things. In the first place, how do you know what my stand on health care is? I’ve never weighed in on that subject. And to say I don’t favor protecting life after birth is absurd. Are you saying I support murder?
Pro-Choicer
March 17th, 2010
11:50 am
I’m a pro-choice advocate who doesn’t understand why so many of my peers are so horrified by the death penalty, yet are seemingly unconcerned about the VICTIMS of those who are given the death penalty? That’s like wanting to love, nurture & have compassion for teh 911 terrorists but not for those innocent thousands who died in the attacks.