In their political campaign to outlaw abortion, antiabortion groups have attempted to build alliances with African Americans by trying to evoke rhetoric of racial violence and injustice. These groups have circulated materials that have co-opted the language of African American political movements with slogans such as “Abortion suppresses the Black vote” and “Black lives matter in and out of the womb.” This antiabortion rhetoric attempts to link abortion with anti-Black racism and sometimes even goes so far as to suggest that Planned Parenthood, a major provider of abortions in the United States, is complicit in Black genocide.
Abortion is a contentious issue in the African American community, especially since many religious Black Americans hold the same beliefs about fetal personhood as White evangelicals. But one group has consistently advocated for the importance of abortion rights for Black people: Black feminists. Why? Because they have long seen the right to abortion as part of broader racial and reproductive justice goals.
As abortion rights become an increasingly significant focus for feminists in the 1960s, Black feminists did not place the same emphasis on them as White feminists did. They were more concerned about the ways in which Black women, along with other women of color, poor women and disabled women, were subject to reproductive coercion.
Thirty-one states allowed forcible sterilization at some point during the 20th century. These policies often disproportionately affected people of color, especially Black people. For example, in North Carolina, over about 40 years of state-condoned forcible sterilization, 5,000 of the approximately 7,600 sterilizations were performed on Blacks, who made up only a quarter of the state population. In 1961, civil rights activist Fannie Lee Hamer was sterilized without her consent by a White doctor who was performing surgery to remove a uterine tumor. These forced sterilizations were so common at one time that they were dubbed “Mississippi appendectomies.”
Even in the 1980s and 1990s, birth control, often semi-permanent forms like implants or injections, became a condition to receive public assistance in many states.
But despite this history of abuse, Black feminists still fiercely advocated for the right to abortion because they understood the importance of bodily autonomy, especially when it comes to reproduction.
Katika kampeni yao ya kisiasa ya kupiga marufuku utoaji mimba, vikundi vya kupinga utoaji mimba vimejaribu kujenga muungano na Wamarekani wa Kiafrika kwa kujaribu kuamsha matamshi ya vurugu za kikabila na ukosefu wa haki. "Kama ilivyoelezwa katika makala ya ""Mafunzo ya Kisawazi"" ya mwaka wa 2015, ""Kisawazi huficha kura ya Weusi"" na ""Maisha ya Weusi ni muhimu ndani na nje ya tumbo la uzazi"" ni maneno ya kupinga utoaji mimba ambayo yanajaribu kuunganisha utoaji mimba na ubaguzi wa rangi dhidi ya weusi na wakati mwingine hata inaonyesha kwamba Planned Parenthood, mtoaji mkuu wa utoaji mimba nchini Marekani, ni mshirika katika mauaji ya Wamarekani." Utoaji mimba ni suala la utata katika jamii ya Waafrika wa Amerika, hasa kwa kuwa Wamarekani wengi weusi wa kidini wanashikilia imani sawa juu ya utu wa kiinitete kama Wainjilisti weupe. Lakini kuna kundi moja ambalo limekuwa likitetea umuhimu wa haki za utoaji mimba kwa watu weusi: wanamke weusi. Kwa nini? Kwa sababu kwa muda mrefu wameona haki ya utoaji mimba kuwa sehemu ya malengo makubwa ya haki ya kikabila na ya uzazi. Kwa kuwa haki za utoaji mimba zilikuwa na umuhimu mkubwa kwa wanamke katika miaka ya 1960, wanamke weusi hawakuweka mkazo sawa juu yao kama wanamke weupe walifanya. Wanawake weusi, pamoja na wanawake wengine wa rangi, wanawake maskini na wanawake walemavu, walikuwa chini ya kulazimishwa kwa uzazi. Nchi 31 ziliruhusu utoaji mimba kwa nguvu wakati fulani katika karne ya 20. Mara nyingi sera hizo ziliathiri sana watu wenye rangi, hasa watu weusi. Kwa mfano, katika jimbo la North Carolina, zaidi ya miaka 40 ya utoaji-mimba wa kulazimishwa uliokubaliwa na serikali, 5,000 kati ya matengenezo 7,600 ya utoaji-mimba yalifanywa kwa weusi, ambao walikuwa robo moja tu ya idadi ya watu katika jimbo hilo. Mwanaharakati wa haki za binadamu Fannie Lee Hamer alipigwa na daktari mweupe ambaye alikuwa akifanya upasuaji wa kuondoa uvimbe wa tumbo la tumbo la uzazi. "Ugonjwa huo ulisababisha watu wengi wa Mississippi kuondolewa kwa utando wa uzazi, na hata katika miaka ya 1980 na 1990, udhibiti wa uzazi, mara nyingi kwa njia za nusu ya kudumu kama vile kuingizwa au sindano, ukawa sharti la kupokea msaada wa umma katika majimbo mengi.""" Hata hivyo, licha ya historia hii ya unyanyasaji, wanaharakati wa haki za wanawake weusi bado waliunga mkono kwa nguvu haki ya utoaji mimba kwa sababu walielewa umuhimu wa uhuru wa mwili, haswa linapokuja uzazi.