Contact: Day Gardner, President, National Black Pro-Life Union, 202-834-0844, daygardner23a@aol.com   

WASHINGTON, Mar. 2 /Standard Newswire/ -- The following is released by Day Gardner, President of the National Black Pro-Life Union:

Recently, I read a press release on Reproductive Rights and African-American Women by abortion advocate Ipas. We all too often hear of women’s organizations talk about women’s rights and reproductive freedom. I found it interesting because while Ipas was ranting about the reproductive choices of black women being almost non existent…I found myself thinking about the facts regarding African Americans and abortion.

Fact: Since 1973, MORE THAN 44 million unborn children have been legally killed in this country--of those killed almost 15 million of them where black.

Fact: African-American women make up only 13 percent of the United States population of women of child-bearing age, yet …the abortion rate among black women is more than three times higher than that of White women.

Fact: Since 1973, there have been a grand total of 22 million deaths in the black community. The break down is like this: 8 million African Americans died from heart disease, cancer, diabetes, crime, accidents, HIV-AIDS, etc. While almost 15 million black Americans died from abortion.

Fact: Abortion is the number one killer of African Americans—killing more black people than all other deaths combined! In the black community this atrocity has reached epidemic proportions.

How can anyone say that black women are denied reproductive freedom when we are allowing our children to be tortured and killed by the millions? More than 37% of all abortions are performed on black women.

The question here is not whether black women have access to reproductive “choices’, but rather why we are fooled into thinking that we have to make a choice to kill our children at all. It’s the pro-abortionists who are trying to suggest that we fix societal problems by reducing the number of black Americans through abortion.

It’s all part of the big lie. The lie that says… by allowing our unborn children to be killed—our societal problems will be fixed. The abortion industry purposefully targets the African American community because many still see us, especially those of us who live in the lower income, urban areas, as unimportant to society. According to the Alan Guttmacher Institute, which is the research arm of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, more than 90% of all abortion providers are located in metropolitan areas which have generally black populations. Today, Planned Parenthood, America’s leading abortion promoter and provider, identifies its core clients as young women, low-income women, and women of color. They target us by placing abortion facilities in our minority and poor neighborhoods to “coax us” into thinking abortion is the best answer—the only answer to an unwanted or unplanned pregnancy. And many of us buy into that lie.

There is a stigma that exists in the minds of many who still see black people, especially those of us in the metropolitan areas or inner cities, as poor, welfare recipients who just sit around doing drugs and committing crimes. Many of those people will try to fool us, or trick us in to thinking that children born in inner cities are less deserving at life because they will become drug dealers, pimps or some other sort of criminal. It seems that many believe that these beautiful children should be prejudged and sentenced to death by abortion--way before they’ve even had a chance to prove themselves.

Abortion is not a cure for black on black crime. Abortion is not a cure for poverty. The truth is-- a poor mother having an abortion today will still be poor tomorrow. The only difference is that she will also be the poor mother of a dead baby.

We, as African American people have come a very long way but, racism is very much alive--most black people know that. What bothers me is we are very quick as a people to recognize racism everywhere else--except the one place that truly affects all of us the most. We don’t have to kill our children to have productive, successful lives.

Throughout US History, African American people have faced many hardships since being brought to this country on the slave ships. But, we have proven that we are a strong, proud people that survived the horrors and inhumane treatment when we were considered less than human. We came together during very difficult times of the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s. But, I have to ask my brothers and sisters… have we become so self- centered that we have forgotten what our struggle was all about?

Instead of embracing the “right to kill” our children we should be working to ensure that each and every African American child is given every opportunity to prove himself—to experience life—to enjoy and become part of our rich cultural heritage—to change the world—and maybe also to save it.