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“A dream you dream alone is only a dream; a dream you dream together is reality.” — Yoko Ono
Jan
9
“The Darfur of America” (or not)
Filed Under abortion, anti-choice extremism, assholes, bigotry, courts, human rights, misogyny, parenthood, pregnancy, race and racism, reproductive justice, women’s health | Posted by Cara |
Following the trend of increasingly manipulative and stupid arguments against abortion comes this story about African-American anti-choice activists calling the high rate of abortions among black women “the Darfur of America.” Because where’s the fun in protesting if you can’t pointlessly and falsely pit against each other two groups who already have a lot of justifiable tension and negative history? The only thing more underhanded, dishonest and obvious than making abortion a men against women issue is to make it a whites against blacks issue. As if we don’t have enough issues in this country that actually are.
Saying they are faced with a civil rights crisis that demands immediate attention, African American anti-abortion advocates will hold three events in the Bay Area later this month in an aggressive push to combat the high number of abortions among black women.
“The abortion issue is huge. It is the Darfur of America,” and it’s time to educate the public about it, said Walter Hoye, a Berkeley preacher who founded the Issues4Life Foundation, a recently formed Union City-based organization intent on drafting more African Americans into the fight against abortion.
Issues4Life has organized the events to coincide with the Jan. 22 anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Jan. 18 and Black History Month in February. All three events will feature Alveda King, the niece of the slain civil rights leader.
[. . .]
“We want to create opportunities to dialogue on issues concerning life, and abortion is the leading cause of death in the African American community,” Hoye said. “It is a moral issue as far as the church is concerned, and we want to strengthen the African American leadership.
“We have always taught abstinence. That is Christianity 101. But when people decide to have sex outside of marriage, we want to do other things like post-abortion counseling, anger management, day care and recovery programs.”
Hoye said he sees a problem with abortion clinics located in black neighborhoods and says people should be just as concerned with them as they are homicides, liquor stores and genocide in Africa.
You know, I’m used to the Roe anniversary being used by the wingnuts, but seeing Dr. King’s holiday exploited in this way bothers me. I don’t know what his personal views on abortion were. A web search only pulled up anti-choice comments from his niece. But no matter what his opinion on abortion, I can’t see him supporting his namesake day as a chance not only to exploit tensions between white and blacks, but also to pit the black community against itself.
BFP’s short but profound statement made the point for me:
I’m not sure what is more offensive–the comparing of abortion to actual systematic genocide of black human beings, or the idea that if abortion in the black communities is genocide, black women are consequently cast as those who are committing genocide against their own people.
The other thing that I find to be highly obnoxious is that this anti-choice organization, and probably the media, will try to make this into “a black cause” and pretend that “this is how black America feels.” Though there obviously are anti-choice African-Americans, it’s not:
The Rev. Amos Brown, president of the San Francisco branch of the NAACP, said that abortion is not a civil rights issue and that he has no plans to take part in the events.
“San Francisco’s top civil rights issues are education, economic empowerment and political engagement,” Brown said. “African American students are behind every ethnic group in this city academically. People who are learned and informed do the right thing. If not, they engage in destructive behavior.
“These pro-life people are demagogues and ideologues and are not receiving overwhelming support from the black community.”
In fact, those of you who have been paying attention will know that this isn’t a new tactic. Antis have long been using the unfortunate and reprehensible racist views of Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger to say that Planned Parenthood is a racist organization that wants to kill off the black population (the antis always manage to outdo themselves with hyperbole). And, in fact, until this article I had only ever heard the argument coming from white people. Now, granted, I don’t have the world’s best knowledge of anti-abortion protesters and activists, but I do think that my knowledge is significantly above the average person’s. And in my experience with reproductive rights activism, Planned Parenthood clinics often do serve predominantly black populations. But almost all of the protesters outside are white. And that probably makes sense: most of the protesters are also men. Antis enjoy telling other people how to live their lives.
Also offensive is that black communities often severely lack access to medical services. And these activists have the nerve to come out and protest the times when women of color are actually receiving care.
None of this is to say that the disproportionate numbers of black women having abortions is something that we should just shrug off. It’s not.
The African American anti-abortion groups base their argument in part on statistics from the Guttmacher Institute that show black women account for 32 percent of those getting abortions nationwide, while they make up just 13 percent of the population.
“Black women are nearly four times more likely than white women to have an abortion,” said Lawrence Finer, director of domestic research at Guttmacher, a nonprofit research and policy organization. “The numbers have been like that for awhile.”
Finer said black women are more likely than white women to have an unintended pregnancy and the reason for that is that they are less likely than white women to use contraceptives. He also said poor women are less likely to use birth control, and women of color are disproportionately poor.
As is almost always the case, the abortions themselves are not the problem. The factors causing the need for high rates of abortion are the issue. Whatever the reasons are for women of color using birth control less than white women — no access, no funds, no sexuality education, no desire to use it, etc. — unplanned pregnancy is the problem. And the problem is also that women of color are disproportionately poor. The inability to care for a child financially is one of the most common reasons that women have abortions, and black women disproportionately live in those kinds of circumstances.
Though I support focusing on the issues behind the rates of black abortion and unplanned pregnancy, I certainly don’t support this view. I often find myself raising an eyebrow at the feminism-lite of Broadsheet, and until about two-thirds of the way through, this post is okay. But I reserve a special head against palm maneuver for this paragraph:
Here’s what I don’t get: I doubt that many people would argue that poor women should have more unintended pregnancies. And it seems like one of the biggest impediments to poor black women’s advancement in America is their statistical likelihood to have unwanted pregnancies and unplanned kids. So wouldn’t it make more sense for organizations like Issues4Life to stop with the abortion-is-genocide argument and try to fix the root of the problem? These leaders must have charisma — so why not use it to motivate communities to stand up for things like better access to contraceptives for poor women, better sex education, and more job training? That seems like a better plan than rallying for the supposed rights of fetuses that apparently aren’t even wanted by the mothers themselves.
Sigh. Truth — that we should be focusing on the reasons for high abortion rates, not the abortions themselves — surrounded by crap.
I feel like I’ve gone over this many times before. And I’m far from the only blogger to do so. But while it may “seem” like poor black women’s advancement is being held back by “unwanted pregnancies and unplanned kids,” that’s only because you’ve been listening to too many politicians and not thinking enough. This is a myth designed to blame black women for their poverty. It’s not being born poor in a society with little actual social mobility, it’s not the shitty school system, the lack of well-paying jobs, lack of job training, the devaluation of motherhood and particularly black motherhood, the criminal system, the skyrocketing price of housing . . . it’s fertility. Always is. Except that it’s not.
We shouldn’t be fighting for the right of women of color to control their fertility because it will somehow help them economically. This myth doesn’t need any encouragment. We should be fighting for the right to make all reproductive choices, including parenting, because just like white women, women of color deserve to make their own decisions about when and if to have children, for their own personal reasons. While abortion and economic class are indeed intertwined issues, a cause and effect attitude is far too simplistic, and not at all helpful towards genuinely progressive solutions.
I take issue with the last sentence, too: “That seems like a better plan than rallying for the supposed rights of fetuses that apparently aren’t even wanted by the mothers themselves.” I think I’ve made clear on this blog that my views towards abortion-rights are fairly militant. And I see absolutely nothing wrong with a woman having an abortion because she doesn’t want child. In fact, it’s probably the best reason out of the possibilities. That doesn’t mean that all women who have abortions have them for this reason. Not even factoring in the abortions that are had for medical reasons — and they should be factored in — women abort fetuses they otherwise want all the time. They do it because of finances, because of a lack of support, because of an abusive relationship, and a whole host of other reasons. Many women struggle before deciding to abort and/or mourn afterwards.
That doesn’t make those decisions bad ones, but it does mean that saying aborted fetuses “aren’t even wanted by the mothers themselves” is just careless and callous. You know, I’d love to live in a society where the reasons for abortion were so simple: the woman doesn’t want a baby. But we don’t live in that world. Let’s not forget that, huh? As we’ve seen, there are enough antis in the world acting cruelly towards women who have abortions. They don’t need our help.
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“Men, their rights, and nothing more; women, their rights, and nothing less.” — Susan B. Anthony
You are right that American society is sexist, racist, classist and even more religionist (a recent Gallup poll suggested that less that 50% of the Americans polled would vote for a presidential candidate that was an open and comitted atheist)
The religionism is a big part of what gives the antis their power – notwithstanding the sexism and the racism.
A mad father, pastor or reverend is just as dangerous as any “mad mullah”.
Quite a thorough post, Cara. You raise alot of important issues that are mired in this genocide argument. Comparing this crisis – & there are some very genuine concerns here that need to addressed – to Darfur strikes me as a bit disrespectful to the immeasurably catastrophic suffering of Darfur. Kinda like claiming that any dictator is the automatic equivalent of Hitler. Not quite. Incendiary rhetoric, at best.
Great post, Cara. And I couldn’t agree more with your criticism of that last line in the Broadsheet quote. I was with them until that very moment too…
Thanks so much for this post Cara!
While reading this I also wondered what Martin Luther King Jr’s views on abortion were–I also found nothing, so I’m guessing the way these nuts are thinking “Hey, he was a black man and so are we and since we need to pin more people against each other, I suppose we can use this as yet another way to pity-party our audience.” These people are fucking crazy.
Well I personally think that their point is to try to reframe abortion as a civil rights issue — that the fetuses of black women are having their civil rights stolen from them. Of course, this is also inflammatory and highly manipulative of Dr. King’s message. But I do genuinely think that they thought it through. Which, indeed, could quite possibly be considered worse.
Great article, Cara. It really exposes Star Parker and her anti-choice African-American posse.
One thing that really gets under my skin is the fact that antis never talk about the women who were slaughtered by their Holocaust. And in fact, out of more than 252 million women who have been slaughtered by anti-choice policies, more than 150 million of these dead women were black or poor.
Oh and this is another thing that the antis NEVER point out: the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Junior was the first-ever winner of the Margaret Sanger Award in 1966.
I’m having trouble posting for some reason, so I can’t put the link to the page itself, but Planned Parenthood has the text of Dr. King’s acceptance speech for the Margaret Sanger Award, and it answers some questions about how he feels about family planning for African Americans. Go to the Planned Parenthood website and search for Martin Luther King, and it should come up.
While I’m here, how would I put a web address in a comment? Is it possible?
Did you try just copying and pasting it? To use HTML (which I ask everyone to do), I have the code posted on the “comment policy” page.
Cara-
Thanks. I’ll try this again:
linked text
Definitely read the speech – I have no doubts now that MLK would be annoyed that his holiday was being used like this. It completely supports what you said. In particular, here’s a quote:
“The Negro constitutes half the poor of the nation. Like all poor, Negro and white, they have many unwanted children. This is a cruel evil they urgently need to control. There is scarcely anything more tragic in human life than a child who is not wanted. That which should be a blessing becomes a curse for parent and child. There is nothing inherent in the Negro mentality which creates this condition. Their poverty causes it.”
There’s more, but I thought that was particularly interesting. Of course it’s not specifically about abortion, but it couldn’t be at that point, because it was still illegal.
I fixed it for you, Violet. I’d try leaving out the quotation marks next time — it seems like your browser or font you’re using turns dumb quotes into smart quotes automatically, which fucks up the HTML (semi-complicated, don’t ask). Quotation marks aren’t necessary for wordpress comments, I’m just into the habit of using them because other programs do require them in HTML.
Oh, and I’m on my way out the door so I haven’t read the speech yet but I will later.
First just want to say I agree with you wholeheartedly regarding the above subjects addressed, and just want to make a comment in a slightly different direction. Please forgive me in advance as this is going to come out horribly politically incorrect, and I do not mean to be uncaring, cruel or callous to the situation. But why does no one address the issue of the fact that the problems in Darfur are largely due to OVERPOPULATION. When you boil it all down, all the cruelty, lack of education, governmental corruption, lack of help from the so-called developed countries etc., it all comes down to that one thing – there isn’t enough sustainable land because there are too many people. Too many people, AKA overpopulation, is usually due to lack of availability, and/or education about birth control and abortion. I’m so tired of people not addressing this, and I’m talking about the “bleeding-heart liberals” like myself, (and I will proudly wear this label when called such) but it is absolutely astounding the backlash I get when suggesting that maybe they need birth control as much as any other aid we could send them. You would think I had suggested sending financial assistance to the Janjaweed so they could take classes in learning ways to more effectively commit genocide. -Groan- I’m merely suggesting that if a plot of land produces roughly 5 ears of corn and a kilo of beans per day which feeds 2 adults and 2 children, if you add 2 more children to that equasion, so now there are 2 adults and 4 children – THERE ISN’T GOING TO BE ENOUGH FOOD TO FEED THEM ALL WHICH LEADS TO FAMINE, FEUDS, AND FIGHTING. This is simple arithmetic, not rocket science, and it is just common sense, not a political, social, ethnic, religious or any other kind of issue. Why is it so hard to grasp? People, we are way past the days of “go forth and multiply”. I can actually get away with saying this out loud when referring to Latin America, since I am Mexican American, Catholic, left-wing, and am always stirring things up at the office, from implimenting recycling programs to defending freedom of speech, protesting sexist dress codes and immigration/racism issues, but holy shit, I bring up the birth control issue and how we could solve most of the world’s problems if people were educated about, and practiced birth control – people in the US really have no idea of how many women in the less developed parts of the world just keep having children year in and year out, because they just think “that’s what a woman does” and it never even occurs to them, they have never even considered that it doesn’t have to be that way, no one has ever told them. Believe me, this is not a choice. My mother had 13 babies, 9 lived. Ask her today what would have helped her more – food and medicine so that she had 13 children to care for instead of 9? That would have actually decreased her quality of life. Not unless that food and medicine were accompanied by education and access to birth control so that when the mortality rate drops, the birth rate drops along with it, otherwise we are just contributing to the problem, and adding more mouths to feed. My mother didn’t “choose” to give birth 13 times, or have 9 children, and I wonder how much choice there is for the women in Darfur. I myself thank God for access to birth control, and abortion, I have no children because I don’t feel that I can provide for a child right now, without considerable sacrifice which I choose not to make. I have had 4 abortions, due to a combo of latex and spermicide allergies, hormonal hell even on low dose pills, and that famous Mexican fertility, and I can’t understand why I have to act like I have regret or remorse for it. Why would I regret or be sad that there are 4 fewer unwanted children in the world? I regret I, like many women, had so many misconceptions (no pun intended) about the IUD, and had to go through a lot of needless pain and suffering that could’ve been avoided had I gotten the IUD 10 years ago. But the abortions? Although I am ashamed to admit I do lie at times, so as not to appear callous and “unnurturing” (or maybe it is just unnerving – people seem uncomfortable with the fact that I am smart, successful and attractive, in a stable healthy relationship and have ‘gasp’ no children at 31 years of age, and no desire to change my lifestyle or make any kind of sacrifices in order to have them – it just seems to boggle their minds) and say it was hard or it made me sad, the truth is that I have never regretted my decisions for a minute, and they were the easiest ones I’ve ever made. I have come to the conclusion that people, even here in the US, much less Latin America, or Africa, don’t truly realize it is a CHOICE whether or not to have children, and how many you have if you do choose to. It’s not something you have to, or are supposed to, or are somehow not really a woman (although I’m pretty comfortable with my femininity and “woman-ness”), if you don’t, there is nothing weird about choosing NOT to. That’s why it is called a choice. And there are people that actually choose to have 9 children. But I have yet to meet ONE SINGLE WOMAN that had a large number of children with very limited resources, and after learning (the key words here being after learning) that it didn’t have to be that way, would CHOOSE to have that many children again. And I know a lot of women like this, in my work, social, and family life, and we talk about this issue at times. That’s not to say that they don’t love their children, or that they didn’t want them, or anything like that, or even that they regret having so many, that is not what I am trying to say. I am saying that if they truly felt that there was a choice, without negative repercussions, 1-2 children, 3 MAX, is the response I hear over and over. And that is backed up by the fact that all my Chicana friends (with one exception that has 3), have just one child, some two, and they are not afraid to say, ‘that’s it! I’m done!’ So please women, of all colors, black, brown, white, let’s send some “choice” along with the “aid” we send – it could be the one thing that will really, truly make a difference. Thank you all for hearing me out. :)
Anita, I absolutely agree that women everywhere need and deserve access to family planning services. But unfortunately, with the conditions in Darfur, it is not quite so easy. The easiest type of contraception to distribute is condoms. But there are many cultural conditions whereby men are completely free to refuse to use them, and they don’t exactly help in the all too common situation of rape. The next easiest would be EC — but EC is more expensive than other types of contraception to distribute, not as reliable, and not something that should be used as a long-term solution. In order to feasibly set up family planning clinics where women would have access to long-term contraception on an ongoing basis, education about contraception and abortion, a hell of a lot is going to have to change first. I think that the availability of family planning, though important absolutely everywhere, is a far more realistic goal in nations that are in need of assistance but not war torn. Also, I definitely would not support diverting funds from other types of aid (food, medicine, shelter) to family planning; additional money is a necessity.
Just one comment on the idea of lack of food. Having worked in refugee clinics in Sudan I can attest that yes, it is a huge problem. But it’s hindered access to food from rebel factions and governments, not a lack of food that is the problem.
We have enough food on this planet to feed every man, woman and child three to four thousand calories a day. As a global community, we have yet to make that a priority that results in effective action.