Saturday, February 18, 2006

Focusing on abortion, race

Philadelphia Inquirer | 02/17/2006 | Focusing on abortion, race

HT: After Abortion
During Black History Month, I sometimes wonder: How many Dr. Martin Luther Kings have we lost? How many Michael Jordans? ....

.... Here in Pennsylvania, blacks only make up no more than 12 percent of the population, yet about 40 percent of all abortions in the state are performed on African American women. ....

In the continuing national debate over abortion, the voices of average black women are seldom heard. We are often talked about, but seldom talked to. I'm an African American woman who can speak about abortion from experience. ....

Arlene goes on to describe her own abortion, which she submitted to at age 22, in 1974, under pressure from her boyfriend. She knew something had gone wrong, and when they discharged her, she felt like she was being sent back to her dormitory to die.

Soon she was hospitalized with a 103 fever and a perforated uterus. Her reproductive organs became gangrenous and had to be removed.
I had lost the only child I would ever have to abortion. And I continue to grieve that loss to this day.

.... How many women are sitting in the pews of black churches, silently mourning the children they aborted?

It's high time we start a new dialogue about the impact of abortion on the African American community. .... Abortion is a failed public policy which is tantamount to setting off a bomb in black families. ....

I am hopeful that one day black women will no longer be exploited by the abortion industry, that their bodies will no longer be mutilated by abortionists, and that their children will no longer be sacrificed on the altar of "choice."

Let us take a moment to remember some of the young Black women sacrificed on the altar of Choice, one of whom, Adelle Roe, I just learned of yesterday.

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