Anti-Choice Group Calls Black Children an "Endangered Species"

Eighty billboards across the city of Atlanta now show the sad face of an African-American child. They read: "Black children are an Endangered Species." It's a campaign sponsored by The Radiance Foundation, an anti-choice religious group, and draws on old stereotypes of women as stupid monsters, of African-Americans as animals, and the pro-choice movement as a racist eugenics movement.

The campaign, Too Many Aborted, is targeting black women, they claim, because they have more abortions. According to the Guttmacher Institute, black women are four times as likely as white women to have an abortion. But this is not about individual black women betraying their race; these statistics paint a bigger picture, underscoring the larger inequities in this country regarding health care and services. RH Reality Check has a depressing summary on some sexual health stats for black women to drive the point home.

Yes, this high abortion rate is a big deal -- but for different reasons. A higher rate of unintended pregnancy is caused by a lack of health care, education, and opportunity. Black women's elevated abortion rate reveals "broader health disparities faced by the black community." As the Guttmacher Institute remarks, "Fundamentally, the question we should be asking is what can be done to help black women have fewer unintended pregnancies and achieve better health outcomes in general."

But rather than actually empower women, the campaign wants to force the black community, and black women in particular, into greater poverty by taking away their right make reproductive decisions. While marketed as empowering -- "choose life" -- the economic and psychological ramifications of restricting abortion based on race would be a huge detriment to the black community. As Loretta Ross, executive director of the SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Health Collective in Atlanta explained, “The reason we have so many Planned Parenthoods in the black community is because leaders in the black community in the 20s and 30s went to Margaret Sanger and asked for them...Controlling our fertility was part of our uplift out of poverty strategy, and it still works.”

More scary yet, the campaign is going on while the Georgia Legislature considers House Bill 1155, the Sex and Race Selection Bill,  which would make it illegal for reproductive health care providers like Planned Parenthood to "solicit" women of color for abortions. This press release from SisterSong explains why this is so dangerous. Basically, the goal of the bill is to impede their ability to provide abortions to women of color.

Considering the inadequate care many black women receive, places like Planned Parenthood are more crucial than ever. Here are two ways to help. First, sign this petition, urging the State of Georgia not to pass House Bill 1155. Second, as Feministing cleverly urged, if you are feeling flush, you can make a donation, in honor of Too Many Aborted, to SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Health Collective or Planned Parenthood of Georgia. Women must be free to choose, they are not traitors if they have an abortion, and their children are not a "species" or animals. Reproductive choice is a fundamental right; sadly, it is a constant battle to maintain it.

Photo Credit: Steve Rhodes