Last week, The New York Times ran a story about the anti-abortion movement's efforts to reach out to black women by telling them that abortion is a form of eugenics meant to eradicate people of color. An organization called Georgia Right to Life has paid for billboards around Atlanta with the phrase "Black children are an endangered species." In addition, anti-choicer Mark Crutcher's video detailing a racist conspiracy on the part of family planning groups has been screened at many organizations in the South. The Times quotes Loretta Ross, executive director of the SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Health Collective in Atlanta: “'It’s a perfect storm,' [she said], listing a lack of access to birth control, lack of education, and even a high rate of sexual violence. 'There’s an assumption that every time a girl is pregnant it’s because of voluntary activity, and it’s so not the case.'"
Feministing calls the article "biased," saying, "unfortunately, the entire article is a detailed explanation of the Right to Life group's opinion, analysis and tactics. Loretta Ross, National Coordinator of Sistersong, is quoted in response, but her arguments barely make a splash on the piece. This doesn't seem like fair and balanced reporting to me."
RH Reality Check comes in where the Times left off, providing much-needed context regarding "factors underlying reproductive and sexual health problems among African-American women," and noting that "perhaps the greatest weakness of this article--and one that is unforgivable given the stakes around women's health and rights--is that the Times failed entirely to point out that the very groups--Georgia Right to Life is but one example of many--spend a good deal of their time and energy opposing funding of the very basic preventive reproductive and sexual health services that would reduce unintended pregnancies (and by extension, the number of abortions), reduce sexually transmitted infections, and dramatically improve the health of African-American women in these areas."
And in response, Racialicious has published a powerful, first-person account of working in family planning clinics in the South. "Women of color are not children unable to make health care decisions, our children are not a species on the brink of extinction through an organized genocidal plot and justice is found when a people are unbound and empowered by medically accurate knowledge rather than dogma." -TLF
Monday, March 1, 2010
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2 comments:
That "VIDEO" you mentioned is called - Maafa21 Black Genocide in 21st Century America and it, unlike this post, is LOADED with actual documentation to make it's points. Perhaps you should watch it - get it here: http://www.maafa21.com
Anonymous, I watched the trailer and also have seen similar material from anti-abortion groups who set up protests at Denver's Democratic National Convention. What I'm seeing here is a lot of fear-mongering. I don't doubt that at one time eugenics programs were pitched as a way to control black Americans. What I fail to see is how this is related to contemporary family planning services available to women.
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