Black Genocide: Accountability and Abortion

***PLEASE, before you read this post, go over The FreshXPress and read 21st Century Genocide of Black Babies? This is actually a comment I left over there that I turned into a blog post. I don't care where you comment, or if you comment, but I just thought this was a great discussion from The FreshXPress, that needed to be shared.

First let me say, that I have not been a fan of Planned Parenthood in the longest amount of time. Some are for reasons stated in this article and some are actually for reasons directly opposite. It is no secret that Planned Parenthood is known to be skeevy when it comes to covering up wrongful abortions, etc. However, they also have their hand in wrongfully discouraging abortions.

The last semester of my senior year in college, I became familiar with a young lady who worked very heavily in reproductive justice. In speaking with her, I was able to gather a different perspective of PP. One of the things she told me was how she talked to women who went into PPs and were shown videos of late term abortions, even if the women need no more than a pill in order to terminate pregnancy. So, they have played both sides of the fence.

Also, there are abortion groups who crusade against Planned Parenthood, because of the lack of affordability of services provided in these communities. Abortions typically start at $430 dollars and increase the further along in pregnancy. So while these centers may set up shop in minority communities they aren’t necessarily the greatest resource. Another thing to mention, in the spirit of discreteness, Planned Parenthood centers erected in minority communities often host white women who travel from their communities, to get services performed. So while they are in our communities and make abortions more obtainable it isn’t always about marketing to black women.

Additionally, there has to be some accountability. Black women over twenty five make up a larger percentage of those who get an abortion. Of these women and Black women that are younger, statistics show they are more likely to have one child already. They seek out the clinics, the clinics do not seek them out. Furthermore, we have to be aware of Black women who fought for the accessibility of services such as abortions in our communities. They have become a marginalized voice and as a result their efforts are overshadowed by the fearmongering of genocide.

It was these women who actually fought for establishments like Planned Parenthood to be placed in minority communities to provide safer alternatives. Interestingly, while the article highlights Alveda King as a staunch critic of this “Black Genocide,” she benefited from abortion, twice.

Oh and if they are bringing up Presidents such as Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, George Bush, and President Clinton please throw in President Obama in the mix. You see, we allow ourselves to be narrowminded and blast Planned Parenthood being in our communities and the fact that our taxpayer money goes to fund this operation. However we ignore the fact that Obama is very pro-abortion, including a litmus test on Supreme Court Justices to support having taxpayers fund these abortions. Not only that, but speaking of genocide, Obama supports live birth abortions. How many of you all going so hard against planned Planned Parenthood voted for Obama? Things that make you go hmmm… ain’t it?

While we are not completely beyond the days of forced sterilizations, there has been great progress in combating that injustice. Furthermore, beyond the scope of Planned Parenthood in our communities that activists say market to minority women, we cannot turn our focus away from societal factors that actually make abortions seem like the better “choice.” I use “choice” loosely because there are a obviously a myriad of constraints such as economic and institutional factors, that often restrict choices for women of color. Nevertheless, we should not be seen as passive victims, always under the preying eye of Planned Parenthoods.

Besides, when African American women make up 72 percent of the new HIV/AIDS cases it’s obvious that there is correlation somewhere with both disease rates and abortion rates based on the the fact that we are not protecting ourselves. That should also be one of the real issues that gets tackled in our communities, before we start going in on Planned Parenthood.

Black people throw fits about the 70 percent of African American babies being born out of wedlock. Which in turn is mind boggling to me how we turn around and throw fits about Planned Parenthood in communities, when in fact, like it or not, without Planned Parenthood that number of OOW babies would be higher. We are a community of hypocrisy and sometimes I believe laziness when it comes to tackling the real issues. All in all, Planned Parenthood isn’t the end all and be all of “Black Genocide.”