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Georgia Billboard: "Black Children are an Endangered Species"


Billboards in Georgia are causing a stir, rightfully. The billboards feature a little black boy, with the tag: "Black Children are an Endangered Species." The message is clear, Black women are aborting too many children and that needs to stop. Pro-life organizations are using race to get a point across. In Georgia, black women are more likely to abort a fetus than a white woman. The billboards are designed to shame women and follow the line often used by anti-abortion groups. There is a need for education and parenting classes for women in Black communities, that is known, but it seems to me this is taking it a step too far. Here is a snippet from an article by AP's Errin Haines:

"The effort is sponsored by Georgia Right to Life, which also is pushing legislation that aims to ban abortions based on race.
Black women accounted for the majority of abortions in Georgia in 2006, even though blacks make up just a third of state population, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Nationally, black women were more than three times as likely to get an abortion in 2006 compared with white women, according to the CDC.
"I think it's necessary," Cheryl Sullenger, senior policy adviser for Operation Rescue, said of the billboard campaign. "Abortion in the black community is at epidemic proportions. They're not really aware of what's actually going on. If it shocks people ... it should be shocking."
Anti-abortion advocates say the procedure has always been linked to race. They claim Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger wanted to eradicate minorities by putting birth control clinics in their neighborhoods, a charge Planned Parenthood denies.
"The language in the billboard is using messages of fear and shame to target women of color," said Leola Reis, a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood of Georgia. "If we want to reduce the number of abortions and unintended pregnancies, we need to work as a community to make sure we get quality affordable health care services to as many women and men as possible."
In 2008, Issues4Life, a California-based group working to end abortion in the black community, lobbied Congress to stop funding Planned Parenthood, calling black abortions "the Darfur of America."
Pro-Life Action League Executive Director Eric Scheidler said a race-based strategy for anti-abortion activists has gotten a fresh zeal, especially in the wake of the historic election of the country's first black president, Barack Obama, who supports abortion rights." (Haines, 2010)


For my part, I believe a woman, all women, should have the absolute right to choose whether to have a child. I do not, personally, agree with abortion, but that is my CHOICE. Simply because it is not something I feel or have ever felt the need to do, does not mean I think all women should feel the same. The fact this organization is using race to try and win the black community to their cause does not sit well with me at all.
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