WE CAN OVERCOME

By Reginald Jones

There is no question that pro-life Americans of all races and creeds face an uphill struggle in the battle for public opinion. There are many political and cultural forces arrayed against us that are most formidable and show no signs of relenting. For pro-life Blacks the stakes are even higher and the task all the more daunting.

The stakes are so high because the policies of abortion on demand threaten our very survival as a people. This is no overstatement. The daunting task is to convince our fellow Black Americans that we more than anyone else in America should be at the forefront in defending the right to life and personhood of the preborn.

In order to do so we must overcome the two most effective tactics of the well-funded and organized abortion industry: [mis]perception and [mis]information.

Though conservative on many of the social issues of the day, Black Americans continue to support Black leaders who in turn fully support the genocidal policies of organizations such as " Planned Parenthood" and other anti-life organizations. That is because the staunchly pro-abortion media have skillfully created the image of the pro-life movement as a bunch of "white, conservative, right-wing, zealots."

That's a powerfully negative perception planted in the minds of Blacks. By contrast, Planned Parenthood and NARAL, whose friends include Jesse Jackson and the Congressional Black Caucus, are represented in the media as benevolent organizations who only want to give poor Black women a "choice."

Black pro-lifers clearly see in this our keys to building a strong grassroots movement. We must build a new perception by appealing to our community's sense of personal history and self interest. The difference is, our weapon is TRUTH.

First, we must go around the media blockade on truth and make the case directly to our brothers and sisters that the plight of the preborn today is no different than our historical fight for equal justice and freedom in America. In each instance the principle is to be treated and respected as human beings.

I've often referred to Roe v Wade as Dred Scott II. The 1857 Scott decision said that Blacks could never be citizens, that they are only three-fifths human and therefore not deserving of legal protection. The Roe decision reduced preborn children to a less than fully human status who did not deserve to be protected by law.

In our struggle for respect, Black Americans resisted dehumanizing terms. Today using derogatory terms towards us has dire consequences attached to it. Pre-born children once referred to as a "bundle of joy," "blessed event," and "God's little gifts" are now reduced to a "fetus," or much worse.

In his recent visit to St. Louis, Pope John Paul II rocked listeners by equating the evil of abortion to the enslavement of our Black ancestors. His statement was so powerful in fact that it made Hillary Clinton visibly wince. (See editorial, p. 2 and Pope's excerpts on p 20.)

Second, we must become as adept as our opponents in their use of evocative words and catchphrases which cut through the media fog. Two words that really cause a stir in the Black community are "conspiracy" and "genocide." The community will be more eager to listen when the issue of the abortion movement and its true agenda for us are explained in those terms.

The conspiracy is the fact that 78% of abortion mills are located in our neighborhoods. As a result the Black population is 35% smaller than it otherwise should be.

In addition Howard University (a historically Black college) released a study showing that Black women are nearly five times more likely to get breast cancer if they had induced abortions than women who didn't.

The word genocide elicits strong emotions and painful memories for Black America. One such memory is the Tuskegee experiment. The infamous Tuskegee experiment allowed 399 poor black sharecroppers, who did not know they had syphilis, to go untreated in order to "document the natural history of the disease." All the men died a painful death. In addition it also must be pointed out that most population control policies are aimed at countries in which people of color reside.

Third, we must actively educate ordinary people about history, such as the founding principles of such organizations as Planned Parenthood. Their founding mother, Margaret Sanger, published a magazine, The Birth Control Review, which provided a forum for some eugenicists who believed Blacks were an inferior race who should not be allowed to multiply lest they become a plague on society. This will cause more members of the Black community to rethink all the misinformation we've been fed and begin to actively search out the truth.

As today's media attempts to delegitimize the pro-life movement with such terms as "the far right," we must remind the Black community that such derogatory terms were used against the abolitionists who believed Blacks were God's children like everyone else, and fought vigorously for their freedom. The pro- life movement is no less legitimate than the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s.

Finally, we must take our case to the most important institution in Black America, the church. It is shameful that Black ministers can mobilize prayer vigils for a president who, as we say in the 'hood, "lived foul," march and protest for Nelson Mandela, yet are mute on the fate of the innocent preborn.

All great movements in American history, be it the abolitionists or the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, started in the church. Write to your pastors and get them to speak up about this plague upon our people. Get them to preach as passionately about the plight of the innocent unborn as they do about racism, for abortion is the worst form of racism.

Get members to join local pro-life chapters and distribute literature in your churches. Urge your church to open crisis pregnancy and counseling centers. This way the community will be fully informed about better alternatives to the savagery and tragedy of abortion and turn to a place where they will feel safe.

If we take this direction we can change the nature and face of the debate and move the majority of Blacks to the pro-life camp which would fracture the coalition that holds the abortion lobby together. Though the obstacles we face are mighty, with God's grace we can overcome.