Abortion Gets Racy

What is the best way to bring attention to an issue? Would be it bringing the government to the brink of shutdown because of an abortion rider or placing a billboard in ever-so-liberal SoHo stating, “The most dangerous place for an African American is the womb”? Clearly the Texan anti-abortion group, Life Always, agreed with the latter, and after only a single day this billboard was taken down.

A hardly subtle message during Black History Month, Life Always claims to have placed the billboard to bring “attention to the dismal number of abortion in the African American community”. Yet instead of sensationalizing the issue of abortion, why not support contraceptives and safe sex? If the true goal is to lower the amount of abortions, why are unwanted pregnancies not targeted? It makes more sense to provide the information and resources to avoid the pregnancy in the first place than to attack the women who terminate them.

Many have called this billboard racist, yet one has to distinguish between highly racial and racist. The billboard reflected the statistics that nearly 60% of African American women in New York City terminate their pregnancies every year. To add flames to the fire, the website printed on the ad, www.toomanyaborted.com asserts that many abortion clinics are found in black communities, linking abortion to segregation and that “abortion is the tool [racists] use to stealthily target blacks for extermination”.

In support of that argument, Life Always reminds us that Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood, was indeed linked to the eugenics movement, a movement, which wanted to reduce members of the population deemed unfit — usually poor immigrants and minorities. Coincidentally enough, Life Always left out the little fact that it was the leaders of the African American communities in the 20s and 30s, which reached out to Planned Parenthood for those resources as a way to uplift themselves out of poverty. It is also clear to note that although Sanger’s intentions were horrid, what Planned Parenthood serves as now is radically different, as only 3% of all its services are abortion and the majority of their services, 70%, include giving out free contraception and providing STD testing and treatment.

What is the most disturbing aspect about this billboard? It exemplifies the same overall message that anti-abortion groups always seem to ignore: what’s the alternative? The answer will always be the unrealistic idea of abstinence, which has worked wonders up till now, so why change, right? Targeting African American women does nothing but vilify their action, which might have been the only pragmatic solution.

But let’s play their game and pretend: what if that mother did have that child, a child that could have been unwanted or a result of rape? How could she support that child, if she is a child herself, a poor woman, or already a mother of other children with no financial stability? What then? She could always turn to the government for welfare assistance, but the same group that shames her to keep her child, shames her for using government money to aid that child.

A woman’s body is clearly her own, and anti-abortion groups should be mindful that it is an action done neither rashly without contemplation nor without a degree of psychological consequences. It is even more appalling that race should be brought into the arena of abortion, because it disregards the socioeconomic factors that lead minority women into abortion clinics. If Life Always truly wants to illicit a conversation about the “dismal numbers of abortions in the African American community” then lets begin with the statistics that a leading cause of death of African American women is HIV/AIDS and continue the conversation with the knowledge and availability of condoms and contraception.