Last year, more than $300 million American tax dollars funded the nation’s leading abortion provider, Planned Parenthood. Now, Planned Parenthood is under attack by pro-life African-Americans who believe there is a racist undertone in Planned Parenthood’s practices.
Last month, a pro-life student newspaper in California placed phone calls to Planned Parenthood clinics across the nation posing as donors requesting their money be designated for a “black baby” because, he said, “there are too many.” When at least four operators at different locations accepted the money, assuring the donors it would be used for an African-American woman’s abortion, the pro-life paper leaked their recorded calls to the media. Those Planned Parenthood workers who accepted the money on a racist basis remain employed and the organization has yet to apologize.
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| Rep. Trent Franks speaks to black community leaders at the press conference. |
At a prayer rally and protest yesterday outside a Washington, DC clinic, Students for Life of America hosted pro-life black pastors and leaders to speak out on behalf of those racial minorities targeted by Planned Parenthood.
Amid a crowd of signs with messages such as “Our taxes should not help kill” and about a dozen orange-vested “pro-choice escorts” from within the PP clinic, protestors stood peacefully singing hymns and praying with local pastors.
Quotes from Planned Parenthood Founder Margaret Sanger, a noted anti-Semite and racist, were written on signs and repeated throughout the event. Sanger said on more than one occasion that we must “exterminate the Negro population.”
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| Pro-life supporters pray outside a Washington, DC Planned Parenthood |
Kristan Hawkins, executive director of Students for Life of America, said after hearing the phone calls recorded by the pro-life student group, she knew they had to make African Americans aware of the situation.
“Those [recordings] would have made Planned Parenthood Founder Margaret Sanger pleased,” she said, noting how the organization now plays out Sanger’s “eugenic legacy.”
The speakers focused heavily on Congressional action as Rep. Trent Franks took the podium to express his “honor” to stand with the leaders to criticize this “incredible tragedy.”
“That Planned Parenthood is willing to take the first civil right away - life - it’s easy to step over and take over any other civil right,” Franks said. “I believe America will be the country that will turn the tide of killing the unborn across the world.”
Franks confirmed that Congress should address the federal funding issues and said he would do his best to stop this “dark tragedy.”
All of the speakers mentioned the prevalence of Planned Parenthood’s in low-income, African-American neighborhoods and Rev. Clinard Childress call for a boycott of the clinics by black leaders - specifically Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, the Urban League and the NAACP - until the racist allegations are resolved, at least by the firing of those employees who willingly accepted the racist donations.
“Black America must wake up and stand up to this racist organization that purposefully plants abortion facilities firmly in black and minority neighborhoods and urban communities - sometimes, right next door to schools,” said Day Gardner, President of the National Black Pro-Life Union (NBPLU), pointing out a charter school directly connected to that particular clinic.
The NBPLU sent a letter to Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama yesterday, asking that he condemn PP’s “racist business practices.” The letter also documents numerous ongoing criminal investigations around the country in PP clinics who failed to report child sexual abuse or falsified records. It was signed by 31 black leaders and pastors, all who call on black America in general to address the issue with more weight.
Statistics show that African-American babies make up 20% of live births, but 36% of abortions. Rev. Jesse Peterson told the crowd, “before you go to bed tonight, more than 1500 babies will be killed in a black woman’s womb.” He encouraged bringing black men back into the picture and said they are “hurting everyday because their babies are being murdered.”
Dr. Lily Epps stood boldly in from the 16th St. Planned Parenthood where, she told the crowd, she had two abortions “in this very clinic” where, when she entered there years ago, was told by a counselor they were going to “’take care of that problem.’” Epps said Planned Parenthood consistently lies to women and must be stopped.
Yesterday’s event was put on partly in effort gain support for the Title X Family Planning Act and the Title X Abortion Provider Act, which would prohibit the distribution of Title X family planning funding to abortion providers - namely, Planned Parenthood.
