The Anti-Abortion Crusade
“Black children are an endangered species.” Pro-life activists have plastered this controversial slogan on 65 billboards around Atlanta, intending to draw attention to the supposed fact that the abortion rate among African-American women “has become so great that it has begun to impact our fertility rate,” according to Catherine Davis of Georgia Right to Life.
Part of the reasoning behind this statement is true. The New York Times reports that in 2006, “57.4 percent of the abortions in Georgia were performed on black women, even though blacks make up about 30 percent of the population.” The fertility rate among African-Americans, however, is higher than the national average, which makes the message on the billboards false.
Aside from being a lie, the metaphor on the billboards is somewhat offensive. “Black children are an endangered species.” What do you do with endangered species? You put them in special habitats or zoos to encourage increased breeding. Surely this is not what the people behind the billboards are suggesting, but it is, nonetheless, an image the signs could evoke.
Furthermore, as Loretta Ross, executive director of the SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Health Collective, suggests to the New York Times, the billboards essentially portray “black women as either monsters intent on destroying their own race or victims of whites who control abortion clinics.”
Though these reasons alone are certainly enough to end this demonstration, the billboards also happen to illustrate the most serious flaw in pro-life activism. Opponents of abortion can’t seem to understand that pro-choice proponents want to lessen the abortion rate just as much as they do. No one is pro-abortion. The key to a lower abortion rate, however, is not banning the act altogether.
Pro-choice activists would do well to remember that most sane people do not make the decision to get an abortion on a whim. No one wants to abort a child for absolutely no reason. Unfortunately, sometimes circumstances demand it be done.
Perhaps instead of spending money on protests like this one, which is more offensive than effective, anti-abortion activists should work on dealing with the issues that cause a high rate of abortion. Extreme poverty, not having enough access to birth control, and poor sex education in schools are just a few of the situations that can lead to unwanted pregnancies.
Pro-choice and pro-life proponents ultimately want the same thing–a lower abortion rate. If everyone spent more time, energy, and money on fixing the causes of abortion rather than fear-mongering and trading insults, we could achieve that lower rate and keep abortion available for victims of rape, incest, and other abuses, as it always should be. —Shea Connelly
