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On The Eve of the 47th Anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” Speech, African American Clergy and Other Leaders Denounce Right-Wing Misinformation Campaign About Reproductive Health Care in Black Communities “Right to Life” and other right-wing groups are trying to make inroads into African American communities that have repeatedly rejected them by misinforming them about reproductive health services. With the approach of the anniversary of a historic moment in the civil rights movement, African American leaders are raising awareness of civil rights, medical, legal and religious issues at stake and of the serious threat to their community’s health and well-being posed by these unscrupulous tactics. Press Conference Reverend Dr. Carlton W. Veazey, minister of the National Baptist Convention and President and CEO, Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice; Town Hall Meeting
April 19, 2010 There is a long history of outside groups agitating against reproductive rights in African American communities and making outrageous claims such as “abortion is genocide.” But several factors make this campaign especially immoral: the dehumanizing shock tactics used by Georgia Right to Life, the unwarranted legislation, and the attempt to close clinics that are needed and wanted. We cannot allow it to spread to other states. The campaign consists of billboards and legislation. The initial billboards in Atlanta showed a picture of a black child with the shocking statement that “Black Children are an Endangered Species.” They were so inflammatory that they were taken down. The legislation, which potentially can shut down clinics, would outlaw abortion done “based upon the race, color or gender of the unborn child” – despite no evidence of these alleged abuses and no need for the bill. The bill “reads like an indictment of any black woman who seeks to terminate a pregnancy,” writes Cynthia Tucker of The Atlanta Journal & Constitution. This campaign preys on fears that arise from our history of slavery, abuse, discrimination and marginalization. For 14 years, the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice’s National Black Church Initiative has worked with African American clergy and laity and congregations to shatter the bonds of fear that keep us from fully addressing sexuality issues that affect our youth and adults. When once it was taboo to talk of sex and sexuality, today hundreds of ministers and religious educators speak about responsible decision-making in the context of African American religion and culture. We cannot allow fear-mongering and falsehoods to undo this progress in our community or to rob African American women of their freedom. It is our duty to present honest, clear information about access to family planning and abortion in the African American community. Pregnancy rates among black teens are higher than rates among white teens. Nearly half of young African-American women (48 percent) are infected with a sexually transmitted diseases, compared to 20 percent of young white women. Among women of all ages, black Americans are almost four times as likely as whites to have an abortion. Antiabortion activists such as the Georgia Right to Life campaigners use this statistic to make the groundless argument that the “abortion industry” is targeting and marketing aggressively to African American communities. In fact, black women’s higher abortion rates are directly related to their higher rates of unintended pregnancy and to broader health disparities. Persistent reproductive health and health care disparities perpetuate a cycle of poverty and are serious problems for the African American community. Providing comprehensive sexuality education for youth and expanding family planning and reproductive health care services are proven ways to improve health and life prospects. Closing clinics and scaring women and men can only hurt the African American community. RCRC’s National Black Church Initiative will continue to provide educational programs for youth and adults that teach responsible decision-making and build on the values of family and faith. Love and respect will triumph!
We who trust women stand in solidarity with and support of SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective, SPARK Reproductive Justice NOW!, SisterLove, Planned Parenthood of Georgia, and Feminist Women’s Health Center to affirm our belief that every woman has the human right to decide if and when she will have a baby, and the right to parent the children she already has with the social supports necessary. In our struggle for reproductive justice, African American women have a unique history that we must remember in order to ensure bodily sovereignty, dignity, and collective uplift of our community. The choices that women of color make are based on their lived experiences in this country and reflect multiple oppressions, including race, class, and gender, and their efforts to resist them. It is unacceptable to speak to the needs of any woman, or her children without taking into consideration the realities that exist in her home and local community. We affirm that an African American woman’s ability to determine if and when she will have children demands that she control the conditions under which she will give birth and have the power to decide the spacing of her children. These freedoms speak to the power and necessity of the preventive care of women before they become pregnant and the importance of comprehensive sex education for all of our children to understand their human right to sexuality in an empowering and responsible way. It means fully funding public education, protecting the environment in all communities, and eliminating sexual violence for all women. We affirm that an African American woman’s ability to determine if and when she does not have children must include a full range of options including the right to have an abortion. For women of color the privilege to exercise this right all too often hinges on other factors in her home and community. Abortion must be approached in the context of the individual woman and the circumstances surrounding her, such as poverty, sexual abuse, lack of health care. To extract a woman from the context of her life dishonors her lived experiences and the plight of a broader community of people. We affirm that African American women have the human right to parent the children they already have. To ensure the full enjoyment of this right, they must also have access to the social supports necessary to raise their children in safe environments and healthy communities, without fear of violence from individuals or intervention by the government. A continuum of care is essential to protect the lives of women and children. And we must prioritize the needs of children after birth. This includes funding education, investing in health care reform for all, ensuring food security and prioritizing the unification of our families through the provision of social supports to protect the most vulnerable. Protecting women and children requires a commitment to these principles. It is a matter of reproductive health, reproductive rights, and ultimately Reproductive Justice. Signed, February 2010 by the following: Eleanor Hinton Hoytt, Black Women’s Health Imperative
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