Pro-Lifers Find Increasingly Receptive Audience in African American Community

By Ernest Ohlhoff
NRLC Director of Outreach

The concept of proclaiming June as "Abortion Awareness Month in the Black Community" touched a nerve. Within days after a packet of information was sent out, NRLC's Outreach Department began receiving an unprecedented number of responses for bumper stickers, flyers, and other educational material. Numerous press interviews were requested and many churches ordered flyers and bumper stickers in large quantities.

The project was jointly sponsored by the National Black Catholic Apostolate for Life and NRLC's own Black Americans for Life (BAL). "We had no idea that this project would take off like a whirlwind," said Fr. Jim Goode, O.F.M., who heads up the National Black Apostolate for Life based in New York City. "Wherever I speak and mention the project people are so hungry for this information they ask me, 'How can I find out more or how can I help spread the word?' We are meeting a very important need within the African American community. Next year this project will have greater impact because we now have an identified group of people who have already committed to the idea of June as Abortion Awareness Month in the Black Community."

NRLC's Black Americans for Life followed up the theme of Abortion Awareness Month by presenting a workshop at its annual convention which focused on how to energize the African American community. Pastor Clenard Childress, a Baptist minister from Montclair, New Jersey, was the principal speaker and focused in on how to establish credibility with the black community. Pastor Childress encouraged pro-life leaders to help the black community in general and the black pastors in particular challenge their "conscience" on the abortion issue. Pastor Childress dramatically used the biblical story of David and Bathsheeba to illustrate his belief that we need to call the black community to conscience.

Pastor Childress believes that one of the most important issues to stress in discussing the abortion issue in the black community is the concept of "black genocide." He points to the grossly disproportionate rate of abortion in the black community. Black women have a rate of abortion almost three times as high as white women.

"It is tragic that so many abortions are performed on black women, most of whom feel forced into it by pressures from society and their family," Pastor Childress said. "We need to give them alternatives and tell them about the dangers to their health and about post-abortion syndrome. Once they realize how dangerous abortion really is and how it is being used to target the black community, they often change their mind and reject abortion."

Mr. Ernest Ohlhoff, director of NRLC's Outreach Department, also presented data showing the grim statistics of abortion in the black community. As director of outreach, Mr. Ohlhoff wants to expand BAL activities and programs.

"The joint project with Fr. Goode proved to be a key in the door," Ohlhoff said. "The response we received was tremendous. Next June we will make the Abortion Awareness Month in the Black Community a very high priority project."

A second workshop was presented by Peggy Lehner, president of Toledo Right to Life, and Rev. Jeffery Baugham, chairman of the pastor's committee of the Dayton Chapter of Black Americans for Life. They focused on material to help reach the average African American person.

Pastor Baugham believes it is very important to shape the pro- life message properly when approaching the African American community.