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
DJ
March 17th, 2010
11:53 am
What an idiot; does she get paid for this. “social and religious conservatives have been fighting health care reform, which would broaden access to reproductive health care” ..broaden access to reproductive health care is this a code phrase for tapping into an unborn human beings scull with a hammer.
Bill
March 17th, 2010
11:53 am
They’ll never listen Granny. Their SHEEPLE!
Kamchak
March 17th, 2010
11:56 am
Good noon Granny Godzilla.
Keep up the good fight!
March 17th, 2010
11:57 am
Bubba, you felt comfortable enough to assert that there was an “attitude” that permeates the prochoice supporters…….In fact, I have not said you support murder. If you are prolife, I assume you are against murder. But to continue in the consistency of your argument, if you are prolife, then you should be for healthcare to preserve life born and appalled that the millions at risk because of lack of healthcare, you should be against “murder” by death penalty, you should be for social justice that provides for improving the quality of life for those babies born, you should be against all war and a complete pacifist, you should be against guns that kill life. Most prolife supportors do not go that far and in fact, proclaim there are times when some deaths (you can call it murder if you want) are permitted despite a claim that life must be protected. You dont have to weigh in on all these issues. When a dogmatic statement is that all fetuses are life and must be allowed to life…the inevitable consequence follows. If you believe that there are exceptions, then the dogmatic statement must be tossed out as a false starting point. Then real discussion can begin on where those exceptions and nuances fall.
Bubba
March 17th, 2010
12:01 pm
Keep Up, of course I’m in favor of health care. Who isn’t? And I’m opposed to the death penalty. Now that that’s out of the way, you must agree with me. Right?
A Time and a Place
March 17th, 2010
12:03 pm
I have a co-worker who’d grown up in foster care & she’s told me stories that literally gave me nightmares. After 18 years of horrific abuse, she “aged” out of the system & was tossed out on her derrierre to live in the streets. Her life prior to that was so awful that this was an improvement! She’s told me quite frankly that she wishes she’d never been born, it’s left such deep scars. And just so y’all know, if I was having a baby & ever found out my husband told the doctor “If it’s a choice between saving my wife & saving the baby, save the baby”, I’d never speak to that SOB again, unless it was through a lawyer!
Blue
March 17th, 2010
12:04 pm
Margaret; did you steal that “continuing to speak truth to power” from the Cynthia McKinney campaign? That was her ‘catch phrase’ as well. And just because someone says it LOUDLY does not mean it is the truth. But I have also thought that both Cynthias were one in the same person!
Keep up the good fight!
March 17th, 2010
12:14 pm
Bubba…. I can agree that the discussion about where the limits are to legal abortion, to healthcare that includes a right to abortion for those who cannot otherwise afford it and to other programs to prevent unwanted pregnancy including sex ed are needed. That does not mean that I have to agree that the definition of life is conception or even if it is that there are not exceptions to any blanket preclusion of abortion. I agree there are not simple easy soundbite answers but instead a need to discuss the boundaries and limits in a sensible manner…..and to argue that somehow abortion is racism and disguised genocide is oversimplification.
Bubba
March 17th, 2010
12:18 pm
Good post, Keep Up, I agree with some of what you say and agree that the racism argument is BS.
fultonrighty
March 17th, 2010
12:20 pm
What is your explanation for the huge disparity in abortion stats for African American women and Latinas? AA is about double the rate. Latinas probably have much less access to “health care” because of immigration issues. Again, where are the abortion clinics located–Google it for yourself.
Robert
March 17th, 2010
12:21 pm
Like many liberal beliefs, it seems hypocritical to say you are “pro-choice”, but at the same time will deny the unborn child the same right to choose.
Granny Godzilla
March 17th, 2010
12:23 pm
TnGelding
Grandbaby due in late august……#1 is taking a crowd of us to someplace for a 3D ultrasound on what we are calling “GenderQuest2010″ then we’re all doing brunch.
The majority of our family progeny of late has been female so we are hoping for a male for a change of pace.
Paul the Reasonable One
March 17th, 2010
12:25 pm
I find it troubling that you don’t find this troubling. Obviously I’m against abortion, but this skewed percentage is not just coincidence or happenstance.
Can you not see this?
When can you take off your party glasses and step back and view something head on. It should trouble you greatly that blacks are aborted 5 times more in proportion to whites.
Where are the Pharaohs that ordered the murder of all these children?
kab
March 17th, 2010
12:26 pm
as a black woman, i am speechless at ms. tucker’s blindness. i would love to read just one unbiased, column by ms. tucker. even to the detriment of the black community, she is gonna spit the party line no matter what.
Turd Ferguson
March 17th, 2010
12:27 pm
Are you kidding?
Confusing Ms Tucker with McKinney would be like confusing a Porsche with a Yugo, a trip to the ocean with a trip to the cesspool, a 4800 square foot home with an outhouse, a fine cabernet with a fine bottle of “bull of the woods” from the Quiktrip, a dinner at Bones with a dinner at Krystal a ride in a 767 with a ride in a gyro-copter.
Need I say more?
Scout
March 17th, 2010
12:28 pm
DBH:
How sadly true ………………..
J. Morgan
March 17th, 2010
12:28 pm
Let’s remember the more updated and accurate definition of racist:
Racist: 1. Slang: Extremely Disparaging and Offensive term for a white person. 2: a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities, if promoted by white people. 3: a belief that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race, if promoted by white people.
kab
March 17th, 2010
12:28 pm
AND THANKS FOR THAT EXCELLENT POINT FULTONRIGHTY. i bet she won’t answer that.
J.
March 17th, 2010
12:46 pm
I think you meant “pogrom.”
I largely agree, but think more education is key. Unplanned pregnancies are endemic across all races, and there’s no excuse for it since contraceptives are freely available at any health department in the state. Unplanned pregnancies or pregnancies by folks who can’t afford children could be prevented if people used their brains and regarded sex for its huge potentialities. Not often enough do people think about the potential consequences of their actions on other human beings, and we don’t have to summon morality or god to understand that.
Keep up the good fight!
March 17th, 2010
12:48 pm
As for statistics, I think you are mistaken to assume that prochoice supporters or Ms. Tucker are not disturbed by any statistic that shows that abortions by one race are much higher than for another. But statistics alone do not prove racism or a plot. Statistics require an analysis for cause and impact. False correlations must be removed or assessed. A disparity shown by a statistic may arise because of economic or eduction disparities or other root causes.
Lucy
March 17th, 2010
12:51 pm
I would be interested in knowing if you wrote about this story on your own or if an editor assigned it to you because of your color?
Billy Peeler
March 17th, 2010
12:59 pm
Doesn’t matter why it’s happened. As Malcolm Gladwell pointed out in “Freakanomics,” the drop in crime is directly traceable to the ready availability of abortion. And it eliminates an enormous number if kids who would otherwise grow up to become nothing more than urban predators. And because the greatest percentage of them would be African-American, their victims would be other African-Americans. So the abortion of these babies is one of the best things that could possibly happen to this country…for Whites and Blacks alike.
Beaves
March 17th, 2010
1:02 pm
Kamchak, I agree if we only had a school system that worked, in fact our guvment is so good and decent job we should let them run health care, they have done so good with the schools, post office and social security.
Kamchak
March 17th, 2010
1:08 pm
Kamchak, I agree if we only had a school system that worked…
And they would efficiently be teaching abstinence only.
Linda
March 17th, 2010
1:08 pm
Keep up@10:38, When you were referring to Palin & said, “If she had taught her daughter right & wrong & morals, maybe even some sex education, then things would have been different,” were you including Obama’s grandmother?
Obama’s father was married to another woman.
The Tar and Feathers Party
March 17th, 2010
1:11 pm
Bubba’s business must be failing, as he is supposedly the boss, yet spends all day wasting time blogging hate. I bet he is a government worker, blogging from his/her/its government office, on a government computer, using a government internet connection. Surely the government IT people are at least trying to trace this obvious abuse and theft of government time and equipment? I will complain to the federal and state agencies in Atlanta, in hopes they catch this thief.
Ruthie
March 17th, 2010
1:14 pm
Frankly, I had thought that at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don’t want to have too many of.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Keep up the good fight!
March 17th, 2010
1:21 pm
Linda….perhaps the sarcasm was lost on you. But if you really want to trot out who may be cheating on who…hmmm… Bob Barr, Newt, Ensign, Mr. Wide-Stance… Yep, I think it safe to say it is human nature.
But then we dont say that cheating shows that their parents were poor parents or failed? SO why do you ignore the comment that my response addressed. If we are going to say that the actions of children reflect the quality of the parenting alone…then yep. Obama’s grandmother must have been bad and so is Salin Palin…Horrible horrible mothers who deserve nothing because their children’s act show the depravity. Make ya feel better now?
Linda
March 17th, 2010
1:22 pm
“We don’t want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population.” 12/19/39 in a letter to Dr. C. Gamble.
“The most merciful thing that a large family does to one of its infant members is to kill it.”
These are quotes by Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood, who CT mentioned above & who Obama mentioned in his speech to PP on 7/17/07 on YouTube.
anon
March 17th, 2010
1:22 pm
shellybean, I am forced to pay for wars I don’ agree with in which countless innocent people die. So are many of my fellow American taxpayers. Bob, read the blog, and any other related to abortion/teen pregnancy, etc. – the majority of our society considers birth control, as well as unwanted pregnancy and the resulting children, the woman’s responsibility.
Big Mac
March 17th, 2010
1:25 pm
CT says: “There is no longer even any affirmative action.”
I deal with this quite regularly and whether you are misleading or flat out lying, the fact remains that there are preferences and set asides all over the place… City of Atlanta bids, Fortune 500 diversity goals, university admission preferences, Federal EEOC enforcement of perceived bias solely by statistics….. what the heck are you talking about? Affirmative action is alive and well, though it may not be labeled that way, it certainly is promoted in many ways including laws.
Jeff
March 17th, 2010
1:27 pm
“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.”
Of course, the least modicum of personal responsibility & restraint are out of the question, aren’t they?
Linda
March 17th, 2010
1:34 pm
Keep up@1:21, My comment had nothing to do with cheating.
Your comment @ 10:38 implied that Palin’s lack of teaching her daughter may have prevented her from having a child out of wedlock.
Obama is also illegitimate.
I asked you if Obama’s grandmother’s lack of teaching her daughter was equally a failure.
OPINION: Is Abortion A Racist Plot? Of Course Not | News One
March 17th, 2010
1:42 pm
[...] Tucker wrote a good article in the Atlanta Journal Constitution countering the Pro-Life campaign that abortion is Black genocide. Here are some [...]
Steve
March 17th, 2010
1:43 pm
Why does everyone keep shaming and putting down black women? What about the black men that impregnate the women and then dump them? Also, instead of churches having marches against gays what about having marches against having children out of wedlock or sex before marriage? I guess if they did that the churches would not have any more members. I agree, though, with CT. Why all of a sudden is there a big concern for black babies amoungst whites?
Keep up the good fight!
March 17th, 2010
1:48 pm
Linda…you are absolutely right…..Sanger has been linked to ABCL and may have been a proponent of eugenics….but so what.
Let me point out that Thomas Jefferson owned slaves. Jefferson wrote the Declaration. Obama has read the Declaration of Independence. OMG, Obama is pro-slavery. OMG, the Declaration is really about being pro-slavery. OMG you have a money in your pocket with TJ on it. You must be pro-slavery too! Really the Beck conspiracy idiotacy of linkage without more is absurd.
As for your inane Palin/Obama linkage…again my comment was ironic and completely lost on you. But have fun if you want to say that yes both mothers were equally poor in their motherhood responsibilities…..so how is that working for ya? The point is?
ctucker
March 17th, 2010
1:49 pm
Big Mac, You’re right about one: affirmative action is alive and well in college admissions. City contracting? A little, but not a lot. And there are no quotas anywhere
ctucker
March 17th, 2010
1:50 pm
Lucy, you’re done, honey.
OPINION: Is Abortion A Racist Plot? Of Course Not | Black Info.Net
March 17th, 2010
1:55 pm
[...] Tucker wrote a good article in the Atlanta Journal Constitution countering the Pro-Life campaign that abortion is Black genocide. Here are some [...]
kayaker 71
March 17th, 2010
1:56 pm
Sure, it’s no ones business if I have unprotected sex. That’s essentially true until you come to the part about who pays for it. Our Health and Human Services bills now are the largest of any one item in our budget, in part,due to the results of unprotected sex. We pour billions of dollars down holes in the ground promoting government programs which are supposed to make a difference in this arena but the statistics just get worse. You can be fiercely independent regarding your “rights” to do as you please but please take responsibility for the consequences. It is not someone else’s problem….. it is yours.
Steve
March 17th, 2010
1:59 pm
Linda: Palin,s teenage daughter having a child out of wedlock is a much bigger reflection on her parenting skills than obamas grandmother. Obamas grandmother was from a different time and their was not as much information on the subject as there is now. Palin woefully was negligent with bringing up her daughter.
Paul the Reasonable One
March 17th, 2010
2:03 pm
Ouch. Poor Lucy. Guess she’ll be holding the football for Charley Brown again.
Negro Project
March 17th, 2010
2:16 pm
Yes and her name was Margaret Sanger. Margaret Sanger founded Planned parenthood and was a proponent of eugenics, advocating selective breeding, sterilization and euthanasia. Please (goggle)read about and the Negro Project. Ms. Sanger wrote about what is known as the NEGRO PROJECT and that they should recruit “charismatic black ministers” to encourage black women to practice birth control. Question, why have you never heard of a march or protest by any of the major so-called black leaders against abortion?
Here’s the big lie in the black community. Well,we don’t want these welfare women to have all of these babies that are going to turn into gangbangers and future baby momma’s. A large amount of abortions are by employed educated professional women who’s partners are also educated and employed. The probablity of that child growing up uneducated and into a criminal gangbanger are highly unlikely. A large number of abortions in the black community are merly for convience.
DEATH FOR THE INNOCENT AND LIFE FOR THE GUILTY. I am sadly amused at these liberal groups and their supporters who are pro abortion and against the death penalty. “Anything growing is living. Therefore human life begins when the sperm and egg join and drop into the fallopian tube and the pulsation of life take place. From that point, life may be described differently (as an egg, embryo, fetus, baby, child, teenager, adult), but the essence is the same. The name has changed but the game remains the same”. When it’s all said and done a woman has the right to abort. Outlawing abortions is impractical and to a certain extent unenforceable. However, it is disingenuous to state that it is not a life. Life begins at conception. A woman has the right to choose if SHE WANTS TO MURDER HER UNBORN CHILD. This is the dirty secret that no one (especially black leaders) want to talk about. Add up the multiple abortions by a lot of single childless black professional women. Who have the nerve to turn their nose up and look down on the single baby mommas. Who, I might add, are also having multiple abortions so that they don’t have additional illegitimate babies by multiple baby daddies. And, its easy see how you get to that percentage. While the so called black leaders (civil rights activist, ministers and politicians) who receive large donations from, Planned Parenthood and multiple liberal/women’s rights organizations, remain silent. Every ones at fault. Abortion causes more death in the black community (1,452 PER DAY) than gang violence, hiv/aids, heart disease, and cancer combined. Silence is acceptance. The choice is yours. Please read about Margaret Sanger and the Negro Project.
Big Mac
March 17th, 2010
2:30 pm
CT: “Big Mac, You’re right about one: affirmative action is alive and well in college admissions. City contracting? A little, but not a lot. And there are no quotas anywhere”
I respectfully disagree and suggest you either are uninformed or don’t want to see it. Just one example, the state of GA and all other states and the Federal govt have a certification process for minority business enterprises. What is the point of that if there aren’t preferences dictated in contracting? (and there ARE!). As far as quotas, if a bid specifies that 25% must go to certified minority businesses based on race or the bid is penalized relative to others, are you claiming that is not a quota? Most reasonable people would determine it was and most bidders will comply on that basis. There are HUNDREDS of other examples. Just because you say it isn’t so, doesn’t make it so. I have first hand experience. I also have first hand experience in Fortune 500 diversity goals creating specfic numerical hiring and promotional quotas based on race. There may be good business and cultural arguments for doing so but your claim that this is not affirmative action defies logic.
Keep up the good fight!
March 17th, 2010
2:54 pm
NP….wow glad you made that great case that racism is part of the abortion conspiracy. Especially cogent parts like…..
“This is the dirty secret that no one (especially black leaders) want to talk about. Add up the multiple abortions by a lot of single childless black professional women. Who have the nerve to turn their nose up and look down on the single baby mommas. Who, I might add, are also having multiple abortions so that they don’t have additional illegitimate babies by multiple baby daddies.”
You’re absolutely on point. There is racism in abortion! Your racism shows while you proclaim how this is a racist plot……directly proves C Tuckers point. Now go back to watching the Kardashians…and keep your eye’s peeled for more proof about baby daddies and abortions.
Keith
March 17th, 2010
2:54 pm
Currently, in Georgia, out-of-wedlock births are approximatly 3 times higher among blacks than whites (75% blacks and 27% whites). In some counties across the state of Georgia, the rates are even higher with as many as 85% of all babies are born out-of-wedlock. This is a recipe for disaster. Say what you will, but this has a profound affect on the ability of many blacks to succeed in life. No wonder there are so many poor blacks, black students dropping out of school, higher unemployment rate, higher crime rate, black-on-black crime, etc. Until the black community is willing to seriously address the issue of out-of-wedlock births, then they will never experience real freedom and prosperity. And, no government program is going to fix it. It is time for black leaders to stop pointing fingers at the white community and look in the mirror. There must be greater respect for marriage and the significance of the father’s role in the family. IMO these are seriously lacking within the black community. It may not sound like it but my hearts desire is that all blacks be successful and enjoy the great opporunities available in this country.
Bill Hartzell
March 17th, 2010
2:55 pm
Negro project you are absolutely right on and I agree, it is a womans choice as to have an abortion or not. Sadly, not enough ministers, pastors or preachers are teaching the true word of God. If more people truly believed in God(demonstrated by being in ‘right’ relationship with Him as evidenced by fruit of the spirit) abortions in this country would be a non-issue- they would truly see it as God does and do everything they could to ensure it didn’t happen. I firmly believe that God judges this nation, homosexuality and abortion are the 2 issues that will bring about the same destruction as Sodom and Gomorrah.
Choice News «
March 17th, 2010
3:01 pm
[...] Prize winning journalist Cynthia Tucker of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution provides commentary on the recent anti-choice claim in Georgia that abortions are racially [...]
Brother John of Dallas
March 17th, 2010
3:06 pm
I’m a politically independent African American, and simply because some on the right have jumped on the black child abortion bandwagon for political expediency does not de-legitimize the underlying problem with the disproportionate use of abortions among African American women. It’s easy to lump everyone together into one basket to come to a convenient conclusion for an article, but the fact remains that historically, there have been some very sinister non-blacks who have experimented in various, sophisticated ways to control undesirable populations for their own selfish aims. For anyone to completely discredit that idea shows that perhaps one’s education has deliberately blinded one to think within the box instead of outside the box. There’s an old saying, “know your enemy.” If you turn a blind eye, then it is difficult to know your enemy and overcome his tactics and strategy.
Linda
March 17th, 2010
3:30 pm
Keep up@1:48, Here’s real linkage.
CT posed whether abortion is a racist plot.
PP is the largest abortion mill in the US with a budget of around $1 B per yr., mostly from fed funds. Most of their “services” are abortions, most of their locations are in poor areas & most of their customers are minorities.
PP was founded by a white British progressive who was part of the eugenics movement & who wrote about the extermination of “the Negro population” & “racial purity.”
Obama is a strong proponent of PP & during his speech before them on 7/17/07, he praised Sanger & hung the Supreme Court for their then recent decision to uphold the fed. partial-birth abortion ban.
Obama also appointed as his science czar John Holdren, another proponent of eugenics.
Abortion is legal but Christian, Jewish, Mormon & Islamic religions condemn it as well as sex outside of marriage.
The health care insurance reform bill (which has little to do with health, care, insurance or reform) is Obama’s & the Dems/liberals/progressives signature bill. It’s of such magnitude that it’s become apparent that they will do ANYTHING to get it passed except for 2 things.
It would have been passed many months ago had it not included the mandate that abortion must now be funded by taxpayer dollars, superseding the Hyde amendment from 1977. It’s like forcing religious Americans to pay for murder as well as the gun.
It appears that taxpayer-funded abortion was more important than “health care,” jeopardizing the bill as well as the WH, Senate, House, their political capital & face–both political murder & suicide.
If abortion is a racist plot, it’s by secular Dems/liberals/progressives.