Ga. Senate’s new concern for black children
WASHINGTON — On Capitol Hill, says Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards, it’s difficult to discuss women’s health “below the waist.” It’s no easier in the Georgia General Assembly, where annual attempts to restrict reproductive rights lead to ugly sermonizing, outrageous distortions and vile legislation. This year has proved no different.
Georgia’s social conservatives have come up with a new twist on their old tendency to insult women and restrict their choices: They’ve added race to the controversy — the subject isn’t inflammatory enough? — seeking to draw black supporters with the charge that abortion is tantamount to genocide.
Dutifully taking up the new tack, the Georgia Senate has passed a bill which would outlaw any abortion “with the intent to prevent any unborn child from being born based upon the race, color or gender of the unborn child . .” Are you kidding me? Black women bear black children, so the bill reads like an indictment of any black woman who seeks to terminate a pregnancy.
The bill is patently unconstitutional. It’s also incredibly foolish.
It “sends a strong signal to women that it is okay to set up categories of discrimination against women who seek abortions,” said Loretta Ross, executive director of the Atlanta-based SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Health Collective, a coalition of reproductive rights organizations.
Any review of the history of the Georgia General Assembly shows its harsh — even abusive — treatment of the less fortunate, including children. That tendency has come in to sharper relief with the rise of Republicans, who indulge businesses and the wealthy at the expense of the less affluent.
Their attempts to restrict abortions would force women to bear children, but they have no concern for those children once they leave the womb. Nor do they care about the health of their mothers. Indeed, Georgia’s elected officials can be downright mean to those children and their mothers.
The struggle over the health care reform is just one example. Gov. Sonny Perdue has rushed to get at the head of the line of partisans who want to repeal the law, which would offer universal access to health care for the first time in U.S. history.
Not only would it benefit working class families who cannot afford health insurance, even though they have jobs, but it would also prohibit the worst abuses of health insurance companies. As just one example, the law prevents insurers from banning children because of pre-existing conditions.
If the GOP-dominated Georgia Senate cared about children, it would surely approve of a law which prevents health insurers from restricting their access. It would also approve of health insurance for their mothers, who need access to good medical care to take care of their families.
The new conservative campaign to woo black support draws its inspiration from data showing black women account for about 37 percent of abortions nationally, while they make up less than seven percent of the population. But, as Ross and others point out, black women, especially those without health insurance, are less likely to have access to contraception and, therefore, more likely to have unintended pregnancies. (As for the notion that black children are “endangered,” there’s no reason to fear: Asian, black and Latino children make up nearly half the population under 5, according to federal statistics.)
If conservatives wanted to curb the abortion rate, they would join with reproductive rights activists to promote access to contraception. Indeed, the would support the new health care law, which will increase women’s access to birth control pills and devices.
But they haven’t done so. Says Ross, anti-abortion legislators’ motives are “about controlling the behavior of women. If women had more access to contraceptives, they’d have more control over their bodies sand more control over their lives.”
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196 comments Add your comment
kayaker 71
March 31st, 2010
9:15 am
Ms Tucker, you miss the point. It is never society’s job to dictacte to others what they must do unless they are breaking the law. If you want abort your yet unborn child, it is your business, not mine. But the story doesn’t stop there. I hear ads on the radio all of the time about those with huge credit card debt who can, because of some new government program, “reduce that debt for pennies on the dollar”. Those with mortgages that they cannot afford, who made horrendous financial decisions, aided and abetted by loan sharks, are being offered government sponsored interest rates that are in the bucket, just so they can avoid forclosure. No one ever mentions that maybe they should have been more prudent in their spending, or that they made bad decisions regarding what they could afford……. oh, no, it’s always, how can we help these poor unfortunate people. And when someone criticizes these handouts, they are aways uncaring, racist or some other ten dollar word that someone in government or the press comes up with.
Same thing with unwanted pregnancies. When is it the fault of the participants? When are people supposed to be held accountable for their actions?
blutto
March 31st, 2010
9:16 am
Another “abortion good, Republicans bad, whites hate blacks” article.
Good grief.
Blue
March 31st, 2010
9:17 am
Reality; by the way, you lost all credibility in your first post when you decried that “don’t educate people on contraception”. What a LAME and STUPID a_ _ argument. So I am to believe you that people that are doing this are doing it at least in large part to their ignorance on contraception; they don’t know how to use a condom or tell the man “not WITHOUT a condom”? Yeahhhhhhhh…riiiiiiight. Let me guess…you were on your college debate team…
Cynthia!
March 31st, 2010
9:17 am
@Reality. Sperm and eggs are not human beings until they meet. I figured you would have learned that in high school biology, or did the evil republicans keep you from that as well?
Name (required)
March 31st, 2010
9:18 am
God is pro-abortion. My cousin had enough miscarriages to prove that.
Reality
March 31st, 2010
9:18 am
@kayaker 71: Wow. Really? You don’t realize that those ads on radio and TV are scams? Really? And, you use those scam ads to justify your position? Really?
Cynthia!
March 31st, 2010
9:20 am
@ Name(required). REALLY?! You dont see the difference in that at all?
T-Bone
March 31st, 2010
9:20 am
@Reality or is it Doofus I appreciate your well thought out argument; Just plain wrong?? C’mon you can do better is that all you got? Yes the sperm and the egg are living cells but once fertilization occurs it’s whole different ballgame. Please try to refrain from using logic it’s hard.
Reality
March 31st, 2010
9:21 am
@Chythia! So the moment in time a sperm and egg meet – voila! A human being? Gee… and all of this time silly me thought it was an embryo.
Well then, if the righties do think that it is a human being right at that point, maybe all of these useless, good-for-nothing people that collect welfare should be collecting even more money the night after hot sex?
Sounds like a plan!
Cynthia!
March 31st, 2010
9:21 am
@kayeker71. THANK YOU! Of course we are just evil conservatives that hate Blacks.
Alan
March 31st, 2010
9:23 am
A-Men Keith!
Reality
March 31st, 2010
9:23 am
@T-Bone: You need to try and refrain from name calling (you called me Doofus). If you cannot use logic and reasoning to justify your position, name calling isn’t going to help.
“… it’s whole different ballgame.” doesn’t qualify as any sort of reasoning. Try again.
Cynthia!
March 31st, 2010
9:24 am
Yes actually, the “embryo” requires oxygen, nutrients, it is growing and maturing, and it has blood running through it. Im pretty sure that makes it a living thing. So if you want to use logic. What about people that are mentally handicapped to a severe degree? I guess you would be ok with killing them off, since some of them cannot think for themselves? Of course that is only if you want to use “logic” like you have been doing.
Blue
March 31st, 2010
9:24 am
Reality: I see…so YOUR opinion counts and YOU can put your here but nobody else’s is welcome? My bad…I didnt’ know. No…I am not okay with them killing people who were put on death row before DNA. I think I stated…pretty clearly…that I think it should be limited to DNA evidence. Which part of that did you NOT understand? I guess that is too tough for your pea brain to handle. And with your statement “@Blue: Yes, I understand what you are saying. But, you are a hypocrit. You mean that for you, a life is extremely important unless they do something you don’t like. Is that it?”, thanks for proving your inability to spell (hypocrit), think, reason or anything else. Yeah, that’s exactly what I said…”unless someone does something I don’t like”. I clearly did NOT say that it was because they had done something “horrific; killing another human”. You’ve got me, you Mensa member you! I think the guy who didn’t use his blinker this morning and pulled in front of me should get the chair. How did you know I was thinking that? You are AMAZING in both thought and debate skills. I’m out of this blog, loser. Tough to debate someone who just twists things and spews ignorance and tripe. By the way…I asked for LARGE fries…get my order right next time.
Russ555
March 31st, 2010
9:25 am
What the Senate is doing, or trying to do is just stange.
Russ555
March 31st, 2010
9:26 am
- is just strange.
Libby
March 31st, 2010
9:27 am
More black babies means an abundance of future Democrats and votes! We must continue the fight for our right to reproduce! Hail ObamaGod!
RGB
March 31st, 2010
9:27 am
After reading the headline, I thought the piece would be about the Democrat-controlled U.S. Senate eliminating the voucher program for D.C. schools–you know the one where thousands of underprivileged children benefited but where Obama, Arne Duncan, and Democrat Senate leaders moved to end the program because the teachers’ union didn’t like it.
Gator Joe
March 31st, 2010
9:29 am
Ms. Tucker:
Republicans will stop at nothing to score political points. They care for Black children, that is, unborn black children. Once born, they are the objects of their racism. As you correctly point out, if they [Republicans] really cared, they would support access to healthcare, improve the education system, fight poverty, and the list goes on. By the way, some of the most hate-filled people on the right are “Pro-Life” (i.e. pro-death penalty, pro-war, pro-pollution).
T-Bone
March 31st, 2010
9:29 am
I thought maybe if I dumbed it down enough you might get it?? I was wrong sorry.
Reality
March 31st, 2010
9:30 am
@Cynthia: Um, well, no. An embryo doesn’t require everything that you mentioned for quite a while after fertilization. It is nothing more than a clump of a few cells that take time to divide.
I sincerely want to clear up this matter because too many people have their opinion formed on mis-information. A fetus is NOT a human being. It takes TIME for the sperm to get into the egg. It takes TIME for the cell to divide. It DOESN’T even remotely LOOK like a humanoid for quite a while, much less like a human.
And, that doesn’t even touch on the brain development (which, in my opinion, is what really does separate humans from the rest).
Reality
March 31st, 2010
9:31 am
@Blue: Bye bye. You are the weakest link.
Alan
March 31st, 2010
9:33 am
“Libby.” More black people just means more crime. Very few will live to 18 to be able to vote as they kill each other or end up in jail. Nice try though.
kayaker 71
March 31st, 2010
9:33 am
Reality,
Scams or not, the idea is that someone else is going to step in and take responsibility for your bad decisions. Your bad decisions are none of my business unless I have to pay for them or support you in some prison because of them. Then, they are my business.
We continue to prop up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, who hold the majority of the home loans in this country. They are two of the most poorly managed companies on record, allowing people like Franklin Raines to scam the taxpayer for 190M after he cooked the books.
Let me spell it out for you….. you seem to have some trouble understanding the point. R E S P O N S I B I L T Y. It is not always someone else’s fault. The government is not always going to bail you out and just like Ms. Tucker, you seem to think that big brother is always going to free you up from the bad decisions that you make so you don’t have to account for them. Wake up!!
Red
March 31st, 2010
9:35 am
Cynthia – so are you saying unless some group has a long history of overt concern with Blacks, do not bother with any concern, support, etc? Are you telling me any group has to have “street cred” to work towards any cause helping minorities? And GA Right to Life being majority White? What does that have to do with anything? Society is majority White. Georgia is majority White.
This group and the Right to Life movement has actually made an issue with the fact a majority of abortions affect minorities. I’ve heard this for years. They’ve made efforts for years on bringing the abortion concern to minority commuities. So Cynthia, I know it is quite difficult for you to NOT be patronizing and race baiting, but please check history before making this some “racists using Blacks for a cause” argument.
In case you haven’t noticed, the Right to Life movement goes beyond your “racism” issue. Unless I missed something Blacks are alive and subject to abortion as well. The issue here is that the numbers are stacked higher in poorer, predominantly Black communities and GARTL is making that known. Maybe you don’t mind a majority of abortions are affecting a poor, Black community. Any other time, stats showing this would be used by some “leaders” as political leverage of their own.
My question to you is why does a “majority White” organization like RTL have to be the voice on this issue? Where are the Black leaders decrying this? The way I see it, there’s a vacuum being filled here that Black leaders have done nothing to speak out on. If I were a member of a demographic that had survival stats stacked against me, I’d think there would be a little more concern expressed.
Flash
March 31st, 2010
9:37 am
I think that a person should be able to take care of their own child.Race is not a factor here their are millions of white and black people on welfare.This is Georgia and their is a fool or so call fool on every corner until they get caught.Education and parenting plays a major roll in this.Race is not a factor it is only made into one.
Bob
March 31st, 2010
9:39 am
Granny, the story is about women getting knocked up because they cannot afford birth control. Read closely granny, I have news for you. The condom works exactly the same whether the woman pulls one out of her pocket and hands it to the man of if the man pulls it out of his pocket and puts it on. Like I said, that is such a lame argument to say poor women can’t afford birth control. I guess the absentee fathers cannot afford gasoline to visit their children either.
Reality
March 31st, 2010
9:47 am
@kayaker 71: I have no problem with personal responsibility. I think it is very important for a variety of reasons. I just really don’t understand your point in this discussion.
Yes, there is corruption in most every program and at every level of government. Does that alone mean that those programs are ‘bad?’
I have made bad decisions in my life. I have owned up to them and have paid the price for them myself. I have also tried to make ammends where possible.
commoncents
March 31st, 2010
9:49 am
“Says Ross, anti-abortion legislators’ motives are ‘about controlling the behavior of women. If women had more access to contraceptives, they’d have more control over their bodies sand more control over their lives.’” (I’ll ignore the typo…)
That’s the dumbest arguement I’ve ever heard. Women have control over their bodies regardless of birth control. It’s called keeping her legs closed. Same goes for men. Wear a condom or keep it in your pants.
As for somone saying that this could be prevented with easy access to healthcare, education and jobs, I recall primary education being free. Schools also have nurses, and doctors won’t refuse you if there is an emergency. Want a good job? Stay in school, and quit skipping school to rob gas stations, smoke pot, get drunk and have sex. Quit doing whatever you want while waiting for a handout. It’s the American Dream, not the American Promise.
But, the biggest cause is…. drumroll… Sh*tty parents. If parents could actually raise their kids properly instead of letting their children run around making adult decisions on their own and inevitably growing up thinking they can continue to make bad decisions, then a lot of this would have been nipped in the bud.
right
March 31st, 2010
9:53 am
Ms. Tucker,
Why so shocked? You know what the state government is like and what they do. Don’t forget though how you supported Sonny on his education plans. They are all the same group of people.
neo-Carlinist
March 31st, 2010
9:56 am
rube: unsophisticated fellow. GA lawmakers don’t care about black children anymore or less than they care about white children. GA lawmakers care about themselves and the lobbyists who shower them with gifts and cash.
Reality
March 31st, 2010
9:57 am
@commoncents: Must agree with you 100% about sh*tty parents. If there was a law that I would support – it would be one that puts sh**tty parents in jail! The only problem with that is it would further punish the child(ren).
Libby
March 31st, 2010
10:00 am
“More black people just means more crime. Very few will live to 18 to be able to vote as they kill each other or end up in jail. Nice try though”
Those statistics stink, I don’t like them, I won’t use them! We need even more black babies, now more than ever! The government can take care of me but they can’t tell me what to do with my body! ObamaCare will take care of the babies! Hail ObamaGod!
The Tar and Feathers Party
March 31st, 2010
10:01 am
Condoms fail, I know, everyone I have ever used ended up torn in half. Some of us are just too large for those sissy finger cots other men call condoms. Fear not, at the rate men are being feminized here in America, the finger cot will soon become the standard size. That said, I believe all fathers should be identified via dna testing, and made to pay the full cost of raising their child. If they cannot pay, deport them to a third world country, and let a rich foreign guy buy their citizenship status by paying all their back and future child support payments. Make it so….
Tommy Maddox
March 31st, 2010
10:03 am
So many of you can justify vanquishing human life under the premise that it’s just a bunch of free-floating protoplasm brought on by chance and frivolity. The folks who produced you didn’t opt for that choice.
I think this Nation has already been judged.
The Tar and Feathers Party
March 31st, 2010
10:05 am
The most accurate predictor of poverty is not level of education of the parents, it is age of the parents at the birth of the first child. The younger the parents, the greater the probability of poverty. Overall, a childless couple have a much lower probability of poverty than an equivalent couple with one or more children. Children cause poverty.
Reality
March 31st, 2010
10:06 am
@Tommy Maddox: Again, you are making a leap of logic to call it a “human life.” Please read the posts above regarding that.
Libby
March 31st, 2010
10:07 am
“I believe all fathers should be identified via dna testing, and made to pay the full cost of raising their child.”
Uncle Sam has already volunteered to be the babies daddy’s! And babies daddy’s won’t give me as much money as Uncle Sam has promised! We don’t need DNA from daddies, NO!
The Tar and Feathers Party
March 31st, 2010
10:08 am
Think about it, we could replace dead beat, stupid black males with smart, rich Chinese, Korean, and Japanese men if we just deport dead beat dads and sell their place to rich foreign guys.
kayaker 71
March 31st, 2010
10:12 am
As each government handout becomes more and more accessable, the responsibility of the individual gets lower and lower. Bozo’s new student loan program is a good example. Government sponsored loans…. yearly payment of only a max of 10% of your income…. loan forgiven after 20 yrs, and in some cases 10yrs if you work in certain government jobs. Who covers the balance? You guessed it, the taxpayer. And tell me that the efficiency of the government in collecting these loans is going to be better than private banks. This is built in avoidance in the name of education. And who is to say that those that enter colleges and universities nation wide are going to graduate. The prime ethnic group that this is pointed to is the black community where the nation wide graduation rate is only 35% after 6 yrs in school. Tell me that that’s not a bargain.
The Tar and Feathers Party
March 31st, 2010
10:13 am
Will condoms be free under ObamaCare? How about the pill? The IUD? The sponge (Ellens R U sponge worthy?)? The contraceptive inplant? RU486? All of these are preventive type care…..
Tommy Maddox
March 31st, 2010
10:16 am
Reality, call it what you wish. I won’t be providing the defense for those folks when time comes.
Cammi317
March 31st, 2010
10:17 am
This is crazy. Economics has nothing to do with why so many young black women are having multiple abortions and/or multiple babies. It’s about lack of education. Education starts at home. Unfortunately, uneducated parents rearing uneducated children is a vicious cycle. It’s the same story in the ghettos as it is in the trailer parks….lack of education. Clinics for the poor hand out condoms like candy. These young people are running around with the latest pair of Ed Hardy’s on their feet, most updated cell phone you can purchase and cash in their pockets and you want me to believe that they cannot afford a condom? It seems that abortion is being used a form of birth control and that is really sad. Girls in the South, of all races, seem to become sexually active a lot earlier. At least, that was my impression when I moved here at age 14, and what I continue to hear and see. I have a 12 y/o with whom I keep a very open dialogue about sex, alcohol, drugs, etc. Some of the stories that she comes home and tells me are sad and terrifying. A lot of these children do not have a clue. Education is the key. I weep for our future.
Russ555
March 31st, 2010
10:20 am
the Georgia Senate has passed a bill which would outlaw any abortion “with the intent to prevent any unborn child from being born based upon the race, color or gender of the unborn child .
Does anyone have any evidence that there are acts being commited that would be crimes if the above law was passed. Seems like a solution to a problem that may not exist. If there are people guilty of doing what the law would prevent, pass it and convict them.
kayaker 71
March 31st, 2010
10:21 am
Cammi317,
1.27M abortion in this country last year. Nearly 98% were for “societal” reasons, ie birth control.
The Carnivore
March 31st, 2010
10:21 am
Please stop writing about race.
Please stop writing about race.
Please stop writing about race.
Thank you.
ATL Dawg, ya dig?
March 31st, 2010
10:25 am
Anti-abortion activist believe abortion is murder. Given this stance, which is pretty start, they are desperate to stop it however they can. Given the compelling arguments for abortion in the instance of rape, incest, life of mother, etc (i.e. just the most pressing moral and philosophical issues of our time) you’d think we’d get a weighty debate of this issue. Not surprisingly, as it’s easier to demagogue than engage in weighty intellectual discussions, this article glosses these issues over, tries to make the bill as some sort of right wing fascist control conspiracy. Yeah, I’m sure. As I’m pretty sure the bill’s sponsors are also ardent tea party/liberty lovers, I imagine they’re not focused on controlling black women’s lives. I’m pretty sure they actually think abortion is murder and are trying to stop it.
Atlanta Native
March 31st, 2010
10:29 am
Granted, the law is pointless pandering. However, Cynthia’s argument is VERY interesting.
“black women, especially those without health insurance, are less likely to have access to contraception and, therefore, more likely to have unintended pregnancies.”
Cynthia is telling us the black women with low incomes have no wisdom?
That is classist and bigoted. So, in other words, if Cynthia lost her job, the wisdom to obtain and use birth control would magically disappear purely based on the hue of your skin?
When one uses circular logic it eventually bites you on your tail end!
An American
March 31st, 2010
10:31 am
Access (or lack of) to birth control is a cop out. Most of the people that I know (black and white) that got pregnant by “accident”, did so because they couldn’t be bothered to use birth control, did not make it a priority, or “messed up” taking their pills – not because they didn’t have access. And many times the man didn’t want to wear a condom. One girl I knew had her 1st child at 17. After that she had one or two abortions, then had another child by another man, another abortion, then another child by that same man (who is now gone with the wind) From the age of 21 she had FREE medical through her job – prescription coverage – yet kept taking chances – with losers. During that time she was making 40k + /yr. It wasn’t a lack of access, insurance or money that kept her from using birth control – she just didn’t make it a priority. You can bring a horse to water but you can’t make him drink.
suwanee reader
March 31st, 2010
10:35 am
If people practiced birth control,and promiscuity were not so widespread, abortion rates would possibly decline. There would be little need for abortion except in cases of rape or incest.