A few years ago, I came upon an abortion protest in Pittsburgh, with anti-abortion activists filling a street outside a clinic that supposedly performed abortions, but at the very least counseled women about abortion. The protest group included young peop
A few years ago, I came upon an abortion protest in Pittsburgh, with anti-abortion activists filling a street outside a clinic that supposedly performed abortions but at the very least counseled women about abortion. The protest group included young people from a local Christian college, a wizened activist holding up a placard with grotesque photos of aborted fetuses, and some earnest young people pressing fliers and other material into the hands of passersby.
What were not in the crowd were Black people. In fact, when I walked through the throng, no one attempted to hand me a flier, no one asked me to join in and no one said anything. I was the invisible man.
Unfortunately, that is where Black people seem to be in this hot-button discussion: invisible. It is a shame, too, because while minority women constitute only about 13 percent of the female population (age 15-44) in the United States, they underwent approximately 36 percent of the abortions, according to Blackgenocide.org, which calls itself a profamily, pro-life Web site dedicated to educating Black people about abortion.
According to the Alan Guttmacher Institute, Black women are more than five times as likely as white women to have an abortion.
Despite those statistics, Blacks are not a part of the discussion, not a part of the news coverage. When it comes to abortion, Blacks are invisible.
It would be different if there was a consensus in the Black community about the issue. There isn’t. While some Black churches teach against abortion, some others muddle through with some pro-choice language while still talking about the sanctity of life. Other Black churches simply don’t speak on it at all, as if there wasn’t a problem – similar to their stances on gays in the church.
But the murder of abortion doctor George Tiller by a fanatic anti-abortion supporter – in his church, while he was ushering – brings the issue right back home, and it might start a discussion, if not on the national news shows, at least there might be a discussion in the Black community.
I thought the discussion might be taken up when President Barack Obama made his speech at the University of Notre Dame. The president of very Catholic Notre Dame was excoriated for inviting Obama, who, while personally against abortion, is also against a federal ban on a woman’s right to choose.
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