Freedom Rider: Abortion Rights are Civil Rights
by BAR Editor and Senior
Columnist Margaret Kimberley
"We must begin to
speak up in favor of abortion rights, and be willing to make the issue a
‘black' one."
In 1973, the United States Supreme Court ruled that abortion
rights were
constitutionally protected. The Roe v. Wade decision was one of the
most significant in the court's history and one of the most important for black
people. Roe v. Wade is a perfect solution to the abortion controversy. It
allows every woman to follow her own conscience, a principle that most
Americans claim to support whole heartedly.
After 30 years of legal abortion, that right is now under
assault across the nation. Religious conservatives have long planned to over
turn Roe. They have been at work in state legislatures throughout the country,
establishing "trigger"
mechanism legislation that would immediately outlaw abortion if Roe is
overturned by the Supreme Court. Numerous states require waiting periods and
specious warnings about mental and physical risks before abortions can be
performed.
The South Carolina legislature is on the verge of passing a
bill requiring women to see an ultrasound
image of the fetus before undergoing an abortion. They would then be forced
to sign an affidavit swearing that they had seen the ultrasound. An African
American legislator, Gilda Cobb-Hunter, summed up just one problem created by
this needlessly meddlesome legislation. "You love them in the womb but once
they get here, it's a different story."
"The corporate media's acquiescence to the political
power of religious conservatives has grown."
The political power of religious conservatives is the
biggest reason for this assault on the rights of American women. As their power
has grown, so has the corporate media's acquiescence to their agenda. In 2004,
a crowd estimated at more than 1 million gathered in Washington to support
abortion rights. You wouldn't
know it from news reports from the corporate media, who either gave little
attention to the march, dismissed its importance altogether or paid greater
attention to the celebrities in attendance.
If black people are to stem the tide of this assault on
women that gets little attention from the press and back handed support even
from Democrats, we must begin to speak
up in favor of abortion rights, and be willing to make the issue a "black" one.
This is a tall order for people whose public pronouncements about sex and its
consequences are often disconnected from their private activity.
Myths about sexual promiscuity, like all racist stereotypes,
have done terrible psychological damage. The reaction to that stereotype has
created a squeamishness about all things sexual. In order to deny that those
awful images have any validity, too many black people will avoid discussion of
sex altogether.
In addition, the influence of religious belief creates even
greater shame and an unwillingness to acknowledge that sexual activity itself
ought to be defended or even just acknowledged. Religiosity runs rampant and
the fundamentalism that has increased its influence among every Christian
denomination, is a growing factor in black churches as well.
As black preachers have been bought off in every other
realm, the anti-abortion racketeers have purchased some colored face time too. Alveda King, who makes a living billing
herself as "Dr. King's niece," has become a vocal opponent of abortion with a
lucrative living to go along with it. Anyone in the pay of
right wing think tanks who writes opinion pieces for the Wall Street
Journal and Washington Times is not to be trusted, even if they are
King's kin.
"Alveda King, who
makes a living billing herself as ‘Dr. King's niece,' has become a vocal
opponent of abortion with a lucrative living to go along with it."
Alveda King is also prominent in the ever increasing
phenomena of women who regret their abortions and become poster children for
the pro-lifers. It is disgraceful that their expressions of regret, whether
sincere or not, have been permitted to deny a right that others still choose to
exercise.
It is a commonly held belief that most black Americans are
opposed to abortion. This opinion holds sway despite the fact that black
American women have abortions at four times the rate of white women. It is a
strange statistic for a people who are alleged to be opposed to the procedure.
It is also true that women living below the
poverty line have abortions at higher rates than women above it.
In other words, if Roe is overturned and if more states succeed in placing barriers to
abortion, poor black women will suffer most. No one in a position of
power ever wants to claim concern for them. Poor black women get the worst
medical care of any group in the country, and when they do have children the
right wing have little use for them, unless they are using them to build the
prison industrial complex.
"If more states
succeed in placing barriers to abortion, poor black women will suffer most."
Defending abortion rights requires more and more courage in
the face of a growing political onslaught. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama
both use weasel words in calling themselves pro choice. Hillary calls abortion
"sad" and Obama says that we should congratulate pro-lifers who don't blow up
clinics. Neither of the front runners will stick their necks out to defend
women and a fundamental democratic right.
Hopefully black leadership will show some intestinal
fortitude when it is needed most. If they are not willing to speak up when bad
preachers and right wing cash comes calling, we will have lost an important
right that black people exercise. A return to illegal abortion without pointed
opposition from black people would be shameful indeed.
Margaret Kimberley's
Freedom Rider column appears weekly in BAR. Ms. Kimberley lives in New York
City, and can be reached via e-Mail at
Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgandaReport.Com. Ms. Kimberley' maintains an
edifying and frequently updated blog at freedomrider.blogspot.com.
More of her work is also available at her Black Agenda Report archive page.
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