By Michele Jackson
Some have
argued that pro-lifers of African descent would best reach the Black community
with the pro-life message by forming a Black pro-life movement separate
from the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC). However, our civil rights
history teaches us that the most successful means to overcome unjust legislation
is for people of diverse backgrounds to unite for a common goal.
Dr. Martin Luther King's non-violence movement actively sought the full
participation of Blacks in American life with the belief that equality would
come through alliances with dedicated whites. Dr. King always insisted that
there be whites on his staff in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference
and there was always a visible white presence in his movement.
Black pro-lifers must not separate from the mainstream pro-life movement
in our common fight to restore the right to life to all members of the human
race. We must work at full participation within the mainstream right to
life movement to overcome unjust legislation permitting abortion, infanticide,
assisted suicide, and euthanasia.
The National Right to Life Committee is the nation's largest pro-life group
with affiliates in all 50 states and more than 3,000 local chapters nationally.
We exist to protect the most vulnerable from abortion, infanticide, assisted
suicide, and euthanasia. The key to our effectiveness as a movement is a
diverse, united, and active grassroots organization.
NRLC works with many right-to-life groups. We must not apologize for working
as a racially inclusive pro-life movement. Black pro-lifers are active in
our chapters. Some are active through our outreach program Black Americans
for Life (BAL) and others are active in NRLC chapters in other ways.
Whether Black pro-lifers have formed BAL chapters or not, we must encourage
Black pro-lifers to work within NRLC for the common goal of restoring the
right to life to all members of the human family.
Despite pro-life sympathy amongst African-Americans, a striking silence
exists in our community from both leadership and the grassroots about abortion
and the other life issues. Rarely do public policy debates include a discussion
of the fact that abortion stops the beating heart of approximately 1.3 million
babies every year, and that Black women represent 34% of the mothers of
these babies.
NRLC has the awesome task of helping to activate the black community in
support of the right-to-life issues. Former Planned Parenthood board member
LaVerne Tolbert has said, "Blacks are not quiet about the issue because
they do not care, but rather because the truth has been kept from them.
The issue is...to educate our people."
Isolated from NRLC, black pro-life activists will cause more people to
die by attempting to take the years needed to start a movement instead of
utilizing the work of a 25-year-old movement to reach our communities with
the pro-life message.
NRLC is the organization uniquely positioned to educate and generate pro-life
activism amongst Black Americans. We are the biggest and most influential
pro-life group in America. Fortune magazine ranked NRLC as the 10th
most influential public policy organization. Imagine how much more powerful
NRLC could be if those African-Americans who say they are against abortion
united with NRLC!