KathleenYWOCLC
Facebook
As an African American woman in America, I feel that my body is constantly being attacked and blamed for issues surrounding and related to abortions.
Just because I am Black and have had an abortion does not mean I have been brainwashed.
However, it seems as if pro-lifers are now trying to target Black women into being anti-choice with a new campaign that has just been launched in New York City. Racist billboards went up in the SoHo section of New York City attacking Black women and our human rights by claiming, “The most dangerous place for an African American is in the womb”.
To my recollection this is the first time that I have seen such a blatant attack come into such a liberal and progressive city such at New York City. However Black women’s bodies all around the country are being attacked! These are the same attacks we are seeing in Georgia to outlaw “race-based” abortion. Where Georgia Right to Life and the Radiance Foundation have collaborated to buy billboard space throughout Atlanta, Georgia and calling Black children, “an endangered species”, while advocating laws to limit the reproductive choices of women of color, as well as pushing for laws to ban abortion based on “the race of the child”. This is the same campaign being waged in St. Louis, Austin, and many other cities around the country!
Pro-life advertising organization, Life Always, has just launched a new campaign “in honor” of Black History Month. I think this is absolutely nasty and completely degrading! DO NOT USE BLACK HISTORY MONTH AS AN EXCUSE TO ASSAULT WOMEN’S RIGHTS! Do not use us Black women as pawns as it is white people who are actually erecting such billboards.
Not only has Life Always created the billboards in SoHo but they have continued to communicate their message through the launch of a campaign website www.ThatsAbortion.com where they state, “There is a battle being waged in the United States that has taken more lives than any foreign war or act of terrorism. The enemy is abortion”. I’m sorry Life Always, but DO NOT compare abortion to terrorism. I think it is completely insensitive to also refer abortion to a “Genocidal Plot”.
Historically Black women have struggled to control when and how we have children for centuries. Access to birth control and abortion services are vital to our ability to have lives with dignity. I believe that every Black woman who utilizes her full range of health care options, INCLUDING abortion services, does so based on her private circumstances and must always be able to do so with dignity and safety. Black women need to be trusted—and I recognize that each woman who chooses abortion does so, not because she is ill informed or a dupe, but because she is making the best decision for herself and her family.
crystal
I'm sure glad my mom does think abortion is an option to lifes quandaries. Peace<><