Today, the population of the United States stands at about 330 million. Of that, roughly 12.4% are black. That’s why it’s a disparaging fact to learn that 38% of all abortions performed in the United States are performed on black women. This rate has consistently been about four times higher than the rate of abortion for white, non-Hispanic American women. While Hispanic-American women also obtain abortions at a higher rate than their representation in the population, the disparity is not nearly as stark.
In fact, if we were to properly count these aborted babies as deaths, more African-Americans die every year from abortion than from all other causes combined. The size of this tragedy, for humanity and for the black community, is monumental. Yet the response of pro-abortion advocates is not to remedy this crisis but to institutionalize it.
High Abortion Rates Among Minorities Are Not Accidental
Recently, after the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, pro-abortion advocates and major news outlets lamented that minority communities would “suffer” the most from the decision, because they were the demographic most likely to obtain abortions and, therefore, the most likely to be affected by restrictions on abortion.
In other words, the promoted narrative is one that says, “because black women seek more abortions, any restrictions in access to abortion for black women harms them.” This unironically characterizes birth as “harm” to black women. It also fails to answer this question – why are so many abortions sought by minority community members?
The problem is largely cultural. The extremely high rate of abortion among poorer black women suggests that promiscuity has been promoted and normalized instead of a healthy family support system, and abortion is regarded as simply another method of birth control. That’s why it’s no surprise to learn that nearly 79% of Planned Parenthood’s abortion clinics are located in poorer minority neighborhoods. Pro-abortion advocates have worked very hard to integrate the normalization of sexual activity and the practice and acceptance of abortion into the most vulnerable communities in our nation.
The Racist Legacy of Margaret Sanger Lives On
Planned Parenthood’s toxic relationship with minorities is nothing new. Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, was not simply “racist”. Her unabashed bigotry went far beyond race. She wanted to eradicate everyone who she felt was “undesirable”: the diseased, the disabled, the feeble.
Ms. Sanger’s belief that the route to exterminate “defectives” in society was birth control, contraception, abortion, and the sterilization of the “unfit.” She was so convinced of the rightness of her repulsive outlook that she thought charities to be immoral. After all, they helped the weak and infirm to survive and procreate – people whom she regarded as, and explicitly called, “human waste.” She resented the fact that organized charities encouraged the “healthier and normal” segments of society to “shoulder the burden” of those less fortunate.
To Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger, the economic challenges faced by impoverished minority communities when raising children was something that could be “solved” by simply eliminating their children. She did not see segregation, discrimination, and pernicious laws – specifically designed to keep them at the bottom rungs of the economic ladder – as problematic. She accepted them as a justified norm.
Thus, under the guise of “helping” black Americans, she began “the Negro project.” She conscripted many black Americans into doing her dirty work, convincing them that prosperity could be achieved through limiting their family sizes in order to conserve their meager means. She callously used subterfuge in making her goal of genocide seem charitable, selling the idea of birth control as a means to ease infant and maternal mortality problems common in lower-income communities.
So how is this different from how Planned Parenthood operates today? Well, the goal has shifted to profit, although suppression of the black population is an obvious and very prominent outcome. Planned Parenthood runs abortion mills, funded by American tax dollars, that perpetuate and encourage abortion as a “solution” for black women to solve the economic “burdens” of raising their own children.
The underlying mentality is unchanged, and they continue to sell lies. Planned Parenthood is not helping impoverished black women to rise above their plight. They’re not offering support or community, both of which might help to free minorities from a cycle of poverty and struggle. No, unfortunately, the solution for Planned Parenthood in “helping” poorer minority communities continue to be the elimination of these children.
Planned Parenthood Sells Lies, And We’re Not Buying
There is a lot of talk today about “systemic racism.” It is a buzzword often used by ideologues to advance pet political ends rather than to address real social well-being.
The irony is – there is an argument that systemic racism is real – but the key is correctly identifying what systems create and perpetuate the disparities we continue to see today, even after decades of civil rights work and revolutionized public attitudes.
One system that needs to be dismantled is the mindset that abortion “solves” problems created by economic hardship.
Economic hardship is a real problem that presents real challenges to everyone who faces it, and certainly to women who are pregnant and may be worried about whether they can afford to keep their babies. Is there really no better response that society and our culture has to offer these young women other than getting rid of their babies? The fact is, abortion does not “solve” anything for these young women. It does not elevate their positions. It does not give them a helping hand.
At best, it is an avoidance mechanism–not just for vulnerable young women and their partners, but for society itself: a mechanism intended to numb our very humanity and to shield us from the obligations of what it means to be God’s children and part of the human family He created.
As Children of God, We Are Called to Help
Legal abortion enables the very real problems faced by impoverished minority communities to be shrouded from the eyes of the “healthier and normal” elements of society. If we allow abortion providers to quietly, secretly, and systematically terminate the lives of preborn children in our very neighborhoods, can we claim the moral high ground if we silently stand by?
It is not enough to be pro-life in name only. We can stand up for women, minorities, and the preborn. Being pro-life will have to mean breaking away from the culture of despair to instead provide young women with real opportunites, real help, and real hope. It involves effort. It involves time. It involves a Greater Love.
At Choices, we strive to be the hands that carry out God’s work, providing young women with true empowerment: the ability to lift themselves up out of a difficult situation, and to carry their responsibilities into the future with competence and, prayerfully, with joy.
Everyone has a role to play in this work, whether through financial support, volunteer work, employment, prayer, or outreach. Will you Join us?
