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Abortion: The Number One
Killer of African-Americans Part One of Four By Dave Andrusko Good evening and thanks for joining the discussion. Part Two is a report about North Carolina RTL's March and Rally. Part Three is a wonderful educational prime on "What Science Tells Us About the Unborn." Part Four is a trip down nostalgia lane, but also a reminder of what you and I represent. Over at National Right to Life News Today (www.nationalrighttolifenews.org), Wesley Smith describes how an anti-suicide message has to compete for attention. I write about the Golden Globe award Al Pacino won last night for his highly sympathetic portrayal of Jack Kevorkian. Finally, there is good news about the survival chances of "micropreemies." Please send your comments on Today's News & Views and National Right to Life News Today to daveandrusko@gmail.com. If you like, join those who are following me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/daveha. Over in Part Four, I'm rerunning a TN&V blog that has appeared each year since 2002, the occasion that I was one of the lucky ones from NRLC to gather with pro-life President Bush at the White House the day before the annual March for Life. I believed then, as I believe now, that the symbolism of meeting with Mr. Bush just prior to his time together with Dr. Martin Luther King's widow could not have been more perfect or more fitting. I would like to make just
two additional comments on the day of the federal holiday in
honor of Dr. King's birthday. (He would have been 82-years-old.) The lack of a spotlight is often because to reveal the truth would be painful to parties which are held in high repute. Put another way, it would be not be "right" to talk about behavior that is so at odds with a group's sterling image. Planned Parenthood is matter-of-factly referred to as the "largest abortion provider" in the United States, kind of like Coke might be described as the "largest provider of soft drinks" in the United States. But its product is not a beverage, it is dead babies. Yet outside the pro-life community Planned Parenthood still maintains a near-pristine reputation, which helps explain PPFA's access to billions of dollars of state, federal, and grant money. Second, PPFA's customer base is expanding outside its core "market"--poor women of color--as Dr. Randall K. O'Bannon and I have written about many times. But from its origins, PPFA has been ideologically committed to "helping" women in minority communities eliminate their unborn children. That ideological commitment--buttressed by all the money PPFA is making--means that urban areas will always be a key to Planned Parenthood's mission. That's on one side. On the other side are the ads that pro-life African-Americans are running billboards and television commercials, asking what is the #1 killer of Black Americans. It's because that killer is not drugs, or gangs, or HIV, but abortion. We just ran a series of articles that analyzed Guttmacher's figures on the number of abortions for 2008. While the best absolute numbers are produced by Guttmacher, the demographic breakout (who gets abortions) comes from the federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC). In 2006, among the 39 reporting areas that reported data to the CDC by race, African-American women accounted for 35% of abortions. Their abortion rate (33.9 abortions per 1,000 black women of child-bearing age) was more than three times what the rate was for whites (10.8). How fitting that Dr. King's niece, Dr. Alveda King, is an articulate pro-lifer and an inspirational speaker. As we commemorate Dr. King's birthday, let us prayerfully hope that just as he helped free of us of the chains of bigotry, his niece may help free unborn children from the bonds of indifferences, cruelty, and injustice. |