Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

"They Don't Trust Pro-Life People"
California Catholic Daily ^ | 4/10/07

Posted on 04/10/2007 11:19:03 AM PDT by Antoninus

Does the pro-life movement have a problem reaching out to African-Americans?

Twenty-five years ago, when 17,000 aborted babies were found in a dumpster outside a pathology lab in Los Angeles, some 12,000-15,000 were observed to be black. Even today, African Americans make up 13% of the population but account for 37% of all abortions in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

Planned Parenthood has spent years building ties with black churches and providing subsidized healthcare, such as pap smears and AIDS tests, to poor urban communities. The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice has spent a decade cultivating black preachers to sell both teens and parents on distinctively non-Biblical views of sexuality and birth control.

In contrast, Peggy Hartshorn, president of Heartbeat International, coordinates nearly 900 pro-life centers across the nation -- almost all in mostly white suburbs. Heartbeat International recently launched an initiative to stake out a presence in non-white West Coast neighborhoods. “It's only recently that we’ve realized we need to be there,” Hartshorn said.

But, for the most part, the intensifying pro-life outreach to African Americans is not a coordinated strategy but a series of projects by independent ministries. The black activist group LEARN tries to rally political outrage by touring colleges with the Genocide Awareness Project -- giant murals that juxtapose photos of aborted fetuses with images of slaughter in Rwanda.

Los Angeles TV-radio talk show personality Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson blends an anti-abortion theme into his work with African American conservative projects. As a board member of the California Christian Coalition, Peterson is one of a small number of black conservatives trying to use the abortion issue to draw African Americans to the Republican Party.

That tactic made a splash in last fall’s elections, when a political action committee run by black radio talk show host Herman Cain poured $1 million into edgy ads on urban radio. One spot contended that "Democratic support for abortion laws is decimating our people.” It concluded: “Democrats say they want our vote. Why don’t they want our lives?”

But many black community leaders are turned off by the use of the abortion issue to attack the Democratic Party and garner Black support for Republicans.

“Crisis pregnancy centers would probably be quite popular as institutions in the black community,” said political scientist Melissa Harris-Lacewell, an African-American who graduated from Stanford Law School. “But that means almost nothing for the Republican notion of pulling blacks in as morality voters.”

Lillie Epps, a vice president of Care Net, which runs more than 1,000 crisis pregnancy centers, most of them suburban and white, agrees. “When you go to African-American communities -- even myself, an African-American woman -- you'll find they don’t trust pro-life people. They look at us as a group who cares very little about what’s going on in the inner city, AIDS, poverty and all the other issues.”

Epps said she hopes to set up a center soon in an African-American neighborhood in Los Angeles. “But it’s been very tough,” Epps said. “When they hear ‘pro-life,’ the first thing they think is ‘white Republican.’”


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News
KEYWORDS: abortion; africanamericans; blacks; prolife
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-46 next last
To: LWalk18
I don't think that is quite true- I think that many (not all) blacks have been taught not to trust white people, especially conservatives.

Which is a shame because many of the most eloquent and convincing conservative speakers and writers happen to be Black.
21 posted on 04/10/2007 11:56:02 AM PDT by Antoninus (I don't vote for liberals, regardless of party.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

It would be great to see a population projection of what percentage of the US population Blacks would make up, if it weren’t for abortion. Maybe someone can do a specific issue ad... perhaps the niece of Martin Luther King, Jr? She is anti-abortion. I would think that statistic would make people in the minority sit up and take notice.

A large percentage of their race has been killed off, well past slavery being made illegal. It’s tragic. Some portion of those people would have gone on to do great things.


22 posted on 04/10/2007 12:02:03 PM PDT by dellbabe68
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: Antoninus

On October 19, 1939, Margaret Sanger (founder of Planned Parenthood)outlined a plan for stopping the growth of the Black community. She predicted that “the most successful educational approach to the Negro is through a religious appeal. We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population, and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their rebellious members.”


23 posted on 04/10/2007 12:04:12 PM PDT by Tokra (I think I'll retire to Bedlam.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: tkathy
Black inner city women have terrible problems with irresponsible males.

I believe it is part of the human condition that males tend to be irresponsible. Women have a role in civilizing men. I believe George W. Bush gives Laura a great deal of credit for making him act like a a responsible person. This is common, IMO.

If a demographic group has an extra large proportion of irresponsible males, then I think something has gone wrong with the role that women play in that society.

I look at Oprah, and I see a powerful, rich, confident woman -- a woman who came up from nothing, who achieved more than anyone would have believed possible, a woman right at the top of her challenging profession -- and I see a woman who seems to encourage other women to wallow in their status of victims who are treated badly by their men-folk. That seems to define Oprah's core audience. It defines the plot for all the books that she recommends.

The heart of the problem is right there. Women are not supposed to see themselves as victims. Women are civilizers who build homes and families and nurture the next generation.

I don't know how that happened. And I certainly don't mean to imply that it's all "women's fault" when the crucial manifestation seems to be irresponsible men. But something ain't right.

24 posted on 04/10/2007 12:07:21 PM PDT by ClearCase_guy (Enoch Powell was right.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: ClearCase_guy
I believe it is part of the human condition that males tend to be irresponsible. Women have a role in civilizing men.

I wonder if this is why women seem attracted to men who treat them poorly sometimes. I wonder if I wasted my time becoming overly civilized too fast.
25 posted on 04/10/2007 12:14:01 PM PDT by JamesP81 (Eph 6:12)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: ClearCase_guy

In their real world, fancy rhetoric about contraception doesn’t connect.


26 posted on 04/10/2007 12:14:30 PM PDT by tkathy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

If I did my math correctly:

37% (estimated percentage of abortions perfomed on Black women each year) of 43 million people aborted since 1973 is 15,910,000 Blacks who were aborted.

What might they have done with their lives? What might they have contributed? How many kids would they have had, and how many Blacks would there be in the US today?

Is anyone upset? It’s actually pretty disgusting. What a news story this would make...


27 posted on 04/10/2007 12:16:57 PM PDT by dellbabe68
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: tkathy
In the real world, black women see ranting against contraception as not living in the real world. Black inner city women have terrible problems with irresponsible males.

Thus has it been for all times, which is why women have been called the civilizers of men. If women wanted men who were less irresponsible, they'd do better to be strictly monogamous and use the "Lysistrada" technique. Artificial birth control only encourages more irresponsibility and leads directly to an abortion-positive mentality. Or do you think it's completely coincidental that all these planned sterility groups also are massively in favor of abortion-rights?
28 posted on 04/10/2007 12:23:46 PM PDT by Antoninus (I don't vote for liberals, regardless of party.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: Tokra
On October 19, 1939, Margaret Sanger (founder of Planned Parenthood)outlined a plan for stopping the growth of the Black community. She predicted that “the most successful educational approach to the Negro is through a religious appeal. We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population, and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their rebellious members.”

Jesse Jerkson must be the embodiment of what Maggie Sanger had in mind....
29 posted on 04/10/2007 12:25:11 PM PDT by Antoninus (I don't vote for liberals, regardless of party.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: ClearCase_guy
I don't know how that happened. And I certainly don't mean to imply that it's all "women's fault" when the crucial manifestation seems to be irresponsible men. But something ain't right.

It's pretty obvious what went wrong. If you listen to Gary Cobb--former NFL player and talk show host here in Philadelphia--Uncle Sugar came along in the 1960s waving a check under the nose of Black families headed by single parents.

Welfare destroyed Black families.
30 posted on 04/10/2007 12:27:51 PM PDT by Antoninus (I don't vote for liberals, regardless of party.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: tkathy
In their real world, fancy rhetoric about contraception doesn’t connect.

Of course not. Some hearts have been too hardened to listen by this point.
31 posted on 04/10/2007 12:28:55 PM PDT by Antoninus (I don't vote for liberals, regardless of party.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: Antoninus

Immorality overwhelms the Black community. Excessive abortions is just a symptom of a far greater problem.


32 posted on 04/10/2007 12:32:18 PM PDT by justshutupandtakeit (Defeat Hillary's V'assed Left Wing Conspiracy)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

“Welfare destroyed Black families.”

...and kept them dependent on Democrats.

Democrats used welfare to secure Black votes. Boss Tweed anyone?

I wonder, who is really racist?


33 posted on 04/10/2007 12:32:44 PM PDT by dellbabe68
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 31 | View Replies]

To: Antoninus
Go to the website for the May 11 Ball for Life, hit "honored guests" at the left, and scroll down. It's Day Gardner!
34 posted on 04/10/2007 12:35:32 PM PDT by firebrand
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: BunkDetector
Huh? Are the Pro-Life ranks NOT overwhelmingly “white, Republican”?

Not my point.

Pro-Life = White-Republican = Untrustworthy = Evil Oppressor
35 posted on 04/10/2007 12:38:51 PM PDT by Eagle of Liberty (The United States of America is the only country strong enough to go it alone.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

15,910,000 Black babies aborted = Evil Oppressor


36 posted on 04/10/2007 12:45:20 PM PDT by dellbabe68
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]

To: 2ndMostConservativeBrdMember; afraidfortherepublic; Alas; al_c; american colleen; annalex; ...

.


37 posted on 04/10/2007 12:46:26 PM PDT by Coleus (Happy Easter, Jesus Christ is Risen, Hallelujah!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

African Americans are the population subset most committed to abortion. With only about 11 percent of the population—and falling—they account for 35 percent of abortions, a self-inflicted genocide that insures their political marginalization by the end of this century. The irrational commitment to abortion reflects the moral collapse of the black church which has swapped a transcendent Godly agenda for the secular nihilism of the modern democratic party. So sad.


38 posted on 04/10/2007 2:34:28 PM PDT by Godwin1
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 37 | View Replies]

To: Antoninus

This is really so sad. I was born in 1974 and I consider myself a survivor. The people in the black community who have a “victim” attitude would probably NEVER be in favor of anything Republicans and Conservatives stand for. It’s a shame how over so many years they’ve been brainwashed.


39 posted on 04/10/2007 2:47:27 PM PDT by ScottiesMom
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Antoninus
There was an abortion mill down the block from where we used to live in a very White, suburban neighborhood. Based on the folks I saw going in and out of the place, I'd have to assume that 80-90% were Black. Thus, the number quoted at the beginning of this article doesn't surprise me at all.

The arbortuaries are generally sited in or near the edge of a minority neighborhood.

This is because they are primarily intended to kill the children of the poor and the non-white.
40 posted on 04/10/2007 3:00:09 PM PDT by George W. Bush
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-46 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson