African American women who care about reproductive justice are not fooled into thinking that the Black anti-abortion movement cares about gender justice. If they had their way, we would be re-enslaved once again, based on our fertility.

I have spoken on many campuses in the wake of the “Genocide Awareness

Project,” which displays posters at colleges to create controversy

among young people about Black abortion. Students are understandably

confused when presented with seemingly fact-based information that

claims that Black women are the scourge of the African American

community. I provide accurate historical and contemporary information

about Black women’s views on abortion.

African American women who care about reproductive justice know that

the limited membership in the Black anti-abortion movement doesn’t

represent our views and we are not fooled into thinking that they care

about gender justice for women. In fact, if they had their way, we

would be re-enslaved once again, based on our fertility.

But the Black anti-abortion movement needs to be taken seriously. The

people involved in it carefully exploit religious values to make

inroads into our communities. They poison the soil in which we must

toil.

Carefully orchestrated campaigns by Black surrogates for the religious

and political right not only oppose abortion, but they also organize on

behalf of many other right wing causes, such as opposing stem cell

research, supporting charter schools and opposing affirmative action.

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Through clever positioning and photo-ops by the right wing, the Black

anti-abortion movement appears stronger and more numerous than it

actually is. Generously funded by a predominantly white anti-abortion

movement desperate for Black representatives, the Black anti-abortion

movement seeks to drive a wedge into the African American community.

They tell African American women that we are now responsible for the

genocide of our own people. Talk about a “blame the victim” strategy!

We are now accused of “lynching” our children in our wombs and

practicing white supremacy on ourselves. Black women are again blamed

for the social conditions in our communities and demonized by those who

claim they only want to save our souls (and the souls of our unborn

children). This is what lies on steroids look like.

Opposition Research Needed

Who are these people in the Black anti-abortion movement? This movement

needs to be carefully studied through opposition research. Information

on them, their connections to white anti-abortion groups and their

sources of funding is scant.

Of course, the most famous of the Black anti-abortionists is Alveda

King, niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. She is a Pastoral Associate,

a member of the avid anti-abortion group Priests for Life, and Director

of African American Outreach for the Gospel of Life Ministries. Because

her father was Dr. King’s brother, Alveda is the leading voice for

linking the anti-abortionists to the Civil Rights movement. This is

despite the fact that both Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott King

were strong supporters of family planning in general, and Planned

Parenthood in particular. Alveda King, who lives in Atlanta, has also

spoken out strongly against gay rights and in support of charter

schools.

A widely known Black anti-abortion minister is Rev. Clenard H.

Childress of New Jersey, founder of the BlackGenocide.org project and

website. He is the president of the Northeast Chapter of Life Education

and Resource Network (L.E.A.R.N.), established in 1993. He claims that

the “high rate of abortion has decimated the Black family and destroyed

Black neighborhoods to the detriment of society at large.” He led

protests at the 2008 NAACP convention in Cincinnati and has accused the

organization of practicing racism against Black children. He is also on

the board of the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform that circulates the

Genocide Awareness Project.

Alan Keyes, perennial presidential candidate, is also well known in

anti-abortion circles. Keyes first came to national attention when

President Reagan appointed him as adviser to Maureen Reagan (daughter

of the president), as she led the official U.S. delegation to the UN

World Conference for Women in Kenya in 1985. At this meeting, the U.S.

affirmed its support for the infamous 1984 “Mexico City” policy that

banned U.S. funds from supporting abortion worldwide. Keyes helped lead

the anti-abortion protests at the 2008 Democratic National Convention

in Denver, and is a favorite of the right for his fierce extreme views

on a number of issues.

There are a handful of other Black spokespeople for the anti-abortion

movement. The point is not how many there are, but the disproportionate

impact they have. They have created the false impression that if only

Black people were warned that abortion is genocide, women would stop

having them in order to preserve the Black race, either voluntarily or

pressured by the men in their lives.

The Sexism They Sell

The sexism in their viewpoints is mind-boggling. To them, Black women

are the poor dupes of the abortion rights movement, lacking agency and

decision-making of our own. In fact, this is a reassertion of Black

male supremacy over the self-determination of women. It doesn’t matter

whether it is from the lips of a man or a woman. It is about

re-enslaving Black women by making us breeders for someone else’s cause.

I am reminded of the comments of Shirley Chisholm, the first Black

woman in Congress, who dismissed the genocide argument when asked to

discuss her views on abortion and birth control:

To label family planning and legal abortion programs “genocide” is male

rhetoric, for male ears. It falls flat to female listeners and to

thoughtful male ones. Women know, and so do many men, that two or three

children who are wanted, prepared for, reared amid love and stability,

and educated to the limit of their ability will mean more for the

future of the Black and brown races from which they come than any

number of neglected, hungry, ill-housed and ill-clothed youngsters.

We need our leading African American women’s and Civil Rights

organizations to speak out more strongly in support of reproductive

justice. We need to organize young people to resist the misinformation

directed at them by these groups. Many of our campuses are unaware of

the activities of the Black anti-abortionists until they show up,

usually invited by a white anti-abortion group.

But mostly, we need to let the world know that they do not speak for

Black women. As my mother would say, “they might be our color, but they

are not our kind.”