Earlier this week, the anti-abortion group Life Always caught some flack for the above billboard which they put up in the SoHo neighborhood of Manhattan. The head of Life Always, pastor Stephen Broden (who is African American) said his group's intention was for the billboard to be provocative. Suffice it to say, they succeeded because the billboard has elicited both positive and negative reactions throughout the country. Here is a link to a story about the Life Always billboard.
Now a discussion about abortion, race, and the reasons women choose abortion is worth having. However, to say the womb is the most dangerous place for an African-American is over-the-top. To me and many others, the billboard is equating abortion rates among African-American women to genocide.
In terms of chances for survival, who would you bet on: an unborn African-American or me at a KKK meeting?
14 comments:
It's another example of oversimplifying the facts. It fails to take into account that abortion rates are significantly higher among poor women (rates among poor women are double that of women overall).
And, of course, poverty rates among blacks are also significantly higher: roughly 26% of blacks and are poor, compared to 9.4% of non-Hispanic whites and 12.5% of Asians.
There's also the higher rate of single mothers among blacks, with the higher poverty rates among single mothers (30% of single-mom households were poor, compared to 17% of single-dad households and 6% of married-couples).
But fixing problems like this would involve combatting the actual roots of poverty, instead of just slanting the facts to meet your viewpoint.
That's why the GOP wants to break up teacher's unions and implements crappy programs like "No Child Left Behind" - stupid people don't question them when they twist the facts.
And an uneducated public is easier to steal from.
I think what's ironic is that effort to get the billboard taken down gave the message much more publicity than it ever would've received sitting on the building.
I'm not aware of any GOP policy to outlaw birth control... that's a new one for me. As for Planned Parenthood, no one has proposed shutting them down, just not giving them any government money.
Yes HR, I stand corrected, the republicans want to defund PP, but this will surely affect thousands of women who get birth control for either free or at reduced prices. There are rightwing extremists who hate any form of birth control, they say the pill is even a form of abortion. Crazy I tell ya! If they could have a vote to outlaw the pill they would probably do it, that's how crazy the right has become.
I agree, anyone who wants to ban birth control is crazy. Religion is a very bad influence on politics.
Many would argue that birth control is a doctrine of the religion that secularism has become.
It is true that the founder of Planned Parenthood, Marget Sanger, was an outspoken racist, who was deliberately putting clinics in areas with high African American populations.
Malcolm, is correct in his observation that a KKK meeting would be more dangerous. However, there is a disproportionate number of African American babies that are being aborted.
I think individual states and communities should be allowed to choose on this issue. Much of the contention that comes from it, is the one size fits all approach we are taking.
@Trestin
I won't deny the truth of Malcolm's statement about a KKK meeting, however abortion is much more common than are KKK meetings, so it strikes me as a false comparison.
I'm not aware of any secularists calling for the banning of birth control pills. I'm aware of one very large religious organization doing so. Sanger's driving force was racism, not secularism.
I think this falls more along the lines of a free market issue than a federalism issue. I don't think states should be able to selectively ban products, whether it's sugary sodas or birth control.
Sue: Many people on the right have a one-dimensional view of Planned Parenthood. They view it as a network of abortion clinics, even though they offer many other services. Live Action tried giving Planned Parenthood the "O'Keefe treatment" with those videos they shot, but I don't think it's going to work. Your comment about what you wanted to say to your brother made me literally lol!
Heathen: Thanks for stopping by. whether the publicity generated by the efforts to get the billboard removed is positive or negative remains to be seen. As for the KKK meeting analogy, I used it to show just how ridiculous that billboard is.
Trestin: While what you say about Margaret Sanger may be true, it's also true that Planned Parenthood provides valuable services. As I mentioned earlier to Sue, Planned Parenthood provides a variety of services besides abortions. To me, it seems like the conservative's drive to defund PP is akin to blowing up an entire village just to destroy one hut.
Genocide suggests there is a concerted effort to abolish a people - race, class, cultural, etc.
Where would this effort be coming from?
That's more than ironic when you ponder possibilities. Who you put your faith in, who you stand against, and who would be behind genocide - logic on its head, truth on its face.
I've some statistics stating that upwards of 60% of all pregnant black women seek abortions.
If that's even close to being true, let's assume 30%, that's a frightening statistic. Frightening for any "race."
If it is true, the billboard is both accurate and warranted.
So many women feeling abortion is their best out needs to be addressed.
Personally, being pro-choice, I'd rather a sign crop up preaching safe sex and prevantative measures. But I also do not find the sign to be offensive.
New York, the self-proclaimed fortress of free speech and mainstream thinking, has a habit of reactionary dismissal when it comes to expression.
So, we're all to help fund abortions, even those who hold life as sacred, yet encouragement against abortion is too far. It strikes me as odd, but maybe I'm the odd one.
This type of stuff always sparks it up, though. Even Tim Tebow's pro-life Super Bowl ad was supposedly only a way to make women feel bad about having abortions.
Maybe some women should feel bad about it. Maybe--victims of sexual crimes and major complications aside--guilt would lead to practicing safe sex and avoiding the issue.
What that ad neglects to show is that AA women CHOOSE those abortions. If their economic and family situations were better, that would probably not be the circumstance.
There is no nefarious conspiracy to kill AA babies.
Free and easily obtainable birth control for everyone would cut down on the number of abortions.
The Catholic Church would lobby against this as would more than a few fundamentalist Christian organizations.
Teenagers have sex. Give them information on preventing pregnancies, and the number of abortions will drop.
It's that easy.
Josh: Equating the black abortion rate with genocide doesn't work because these women aren't being forced to have abortions... it is their choice. Having said that, can you provide a link to the statistics you cited regarding upwards of 60% of all pregnant black women seek abortions? If it is that high, I think there is a problem.
Shaw: The latest right-wing talking point is that liberals are committing genocide against African-Americans via the work of Planned Parenthood. However, the right-wing is missing a key point which you stated: these women are choosing to have abortions. I think education and creating awareness (via public service announcements) can help lower the abortion rate among African Americans.
Scott Walker has unveiled his budget...
Gov. Scott Walker’s budget would repeal a state law requiring insurance companies cover prescription birth control.
Walker’s budget released Tuesday would undo the law signed in 2009 by his Democratic predecessor Gov. Jim Doyle. Passage of the bill, which took effect last year, came after more than a decade of trying by Democrats.
The mandate had been fought by anti-abortion groups and Catholics but supported by Planned Parenthood and public health groups.
Such a repeal would seriously jeopardize a woman’s reproductive health in Wisconsin. American women who aren’t using contraception like birth control represent “one-third of all women at risk of unintended pregnancy and account for 95% of the three million unintended pregnancies that occur every year.” Such pregnancies, in turn, have been linked to “numerous negative maternal and child health outcomes,” including “increased risk of morbidity for women” and delayed prenatal care for the infant. According to the CDC, prescription contraceptives are currently the leading method by which women avoid this danger.
But Gov. Walker’s anti-birth control agenda doesn’t just stop with banning insurance coverage. Taking a page from Gov. Chris Christie’s (R-NJ) playbook, Walker’s budget also eliminates Title V, “the only state funded family planning health care” that “ensures access to critical health care services for uninsured Wisconsinites including cervical, breast, and prostate cancer screening, well women exams, sexually transmitted disease screening and treatment, and access to contraception.” Zeroing out Title V leaves 50 health centers in Wisconsin at risk of closing — many of which provided contraceptive care to 52,000 Wisconsin women in 2008 alone. But to Walker, the deficit takes precedence. Of course, as a Guttmacher Institute study indicates, every $1 spent on birth control saves taxpayers $4.02 is just an inconvenient detail.
While other states like Iowa have specific legislation to limit birth control options, Walker is using his budget to “launch an all out assault on reproductive health care,” said NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin’s Executive Director Lisa Subeck. In doing so, “Walker completely fails the women and families of Wisconsin.”
this is just the beginning. the religious right believes birth control methods like the pill are aborting babies. They are hideously misinformed.
Yes. I know. That's why it's not anything close to genocide.
And this is where I read the stats for New York City - not nationwide, fortunately.
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local/new_york&id=7883827
According to this, over 40% of all pregnant women are having abortions and it's even more frightenly high for minority women.
The article is a quick little piece that claims things are actually getting better than in years past.
...repeal a state law requiring insurance companies cover prescription birth control
I feel like I'm the precision police, but this isn't the same as banning birth control. Reasonable people can debate whether the government should subsidize birth control or abortion clinics. Reasonable people can debate whether insurance companies should be required to cover birth control or abortion.
But the characterization from the left is that Republicans want to shut down Planned Parenthood or outlaw birth control. Neither of which is true. Words matter.
[steps down from soap box]
Sue: Thanks for the stats regarding Gov. Walker. I wonder if any of the citizens who voted for him are regretting their choice.
Josh: Thanks for the link.
Heathen: I don't believe Sue is saying the GOP is trying to ban birth control. However, if birth control was to go the way of dodo bird, I doubt if many people on the right would shed any tears.
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