The importance of Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination and a conservative majority on the Supreme Court cannot be overstated, especially with regards to the black community.
Jason L. Riley, a member of the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board, exposed the urgency behind the pro-life movement in a riveting column illustrating how more black babies are murdered by abortion than are born alive in places like New York City every year.
Dr. King was joined by black civil rights advocates like Fannie Lou Hamer and Whitney Young who deplored the procedure, and even Rev. Jesse Jackson referred to abortion as “murder” when it was fashionable to do so. However, those attitudes began to shift in the following decades, and a 2017 Pew Research Center survey determined that 50 percent of Hispanics, 58 percent of whites and 62 percent of blacks now contend that abortion should be legal in all or most cases.
The consequences of these changing opinions have been devastating. According to statistics from the NYC Health Department released in May, black mothers terminated 136,426 pregnancies and gave birth to 118,127 babies during a four year period ending in 2016.
Although they make up just 13 percent of the female population in America, black mothers account for a disproportionate 36 percent of total abortions.
Riley disputes the common progressive response to these asymmetrical statistics, arguing that “[r]acism, poverty and lack of access to health care” are not plausible explanations. Instead, he explains that — however uncomfortable it may be to consider — “black self-destructive behavior” and cultural disparities are to blame.
Riley is joined by modern civil rights activists like DePaul University professor of philosophy Jason Hill, who believe that abortion is just another form of self-immolation from the black community. Groups like Black Lives Matter “want white people to esteem black lives and value the humanity of black people when they themselves can’t condemn and express moral outrage at those who maim and kill black children in the course of gang warfare, senseless street violence, and drive-by shootings,” Hill explained.
If there are external factors at play to explain the propensity for abortion within the black community, the blame certainly doesn’t rest with pro-life Republicans.
Unfortunately, the success of Planned Parenthood’s pro-abortion agenda has led some social activists to deplore an abortion-driven “black genocide,” and in recent years pro-life African Americans have joined hands with white anti-abortionists to expose this growing pandemic. Some religious black conservatives have even co-opted the slogan “Black Lives Matter” to give it a pro-life connotation, calling for a “Black Babies Matter” movement.
During the Barack Obama presidency, a group calling themselves Live Action published a series of undercover videos in which Planned Parenthood employees appeared to agree to accept donations specifically for performing abortions on black women. In August 2015, two dozen black Christian leaders and social activists protested in front of the National Portrait Gallery, calling for museum officials to remove a bust of Sanger displayed in a “Struggle for Justice” exhibit.
Thanks to a conservative majority on the Supreme Court, help is on the way for all citizens who treasure life and understand the importance of defending the defenseless.
However, like many social issues that have plagued a people throughout their history, true and lasting change can only begin from within. And with a new generation of highly-motivated black conservatives taking the issue of abortion head-on, there’s hope.