Black lives matter.
This simple statement of absolute truth has become incendiary during America’s current climate of conflict, but it doesn’t need to be. We all should agree (unequivocally) that black lives matter.
And that includes black lives terminated by abortion.
Since the Supreme Court decided Roe v. Wade in 1973, we in the United States have aborted more than 61 million babies. Black people make up approximately 13% of the population but account for approximately 36% of all abortion procedures. That’s about the same disparity seen in U.S. correctional facilities, where blacks account for roughly 34% of inmates.
Could it be that the same root causes producing disparities in the incarceration rate are also to blame for disparities in the abortion rate?
While there is protest over blacks imprisoned at this outsized pace, where is the outrage over this disregard for unborn black lives?
Black lives matter.
We can only speculate about what these innocent little black children could have become had they been given the chance to continue their lives. But we as a nation have failed miserably to properly affirm their value in the eyes of God.
In many ways, the abortion industry is doing what it set out to do from the beginning — snuff out the lives of the little ones considered likely to be a burden on the rest of society.
The founder of Planned Parenthood, Margaret Sanger, said, “We must make this country into a garden of children instead of a disorderly back lot overrun with human weeds.” Another time, she wrote that “the most urgent problem today is how to limit and discourage the over-fertility of the mentally and physically defective.”
Any worldview that grades human worth in such a manner is apt to discriminate against children raised in poor communities where family structures are less stable and educational opportunities are fewer. Following centuries of slavery, segregation, and systematic discrimination, blacks in America are disproportionately more likely than whites to grow up in such poverty-stricken areas.
Although Sanger generally did not advocate abortion, she believed in sterilization among populations she considered inferior — with the goal of producing generations of more intelligent, productive, and talented specimens of humans. The organization she founded simply took her goals and ideas to the next level with its wide-armed embrace of abortion.
While Sanger had misplaced notions of using eugenics to create a “better” society, those who actually seek abortions for themselves are more likely to do so from a sense of desperation.
In this regard, the reasons motivating modern black women to seek abortions are generally the same as those motivating women of any race. An unwed mother may feel completely unprepared for the overwhelming responsibility of raising a child. Parents living in poverty may believe their economic situation would provide a child with little opportunity to achieve a fulfilling life.
But with love and compassion, we as a society must make it clear that there are other, better options for black mothers (and mothers of all races) than to submit to the abortionist’s deadly devices.
We must focus on creating a caring and compassionate culture of life — a society where young, poor, and unprepared parents can have confidence that the help they need to rear a child is available to them.
As black Americans, we have many issues near and dear to our hearts. Most, if not all, of our concerns are universal to people of every race and background. Our unique history simply brings a certain poignancy to our shared struggles over the years.
We should continue to advocate for equal rights. And whenever and wherever it happens, we should continue to stand against the unjust treatment of our fellow blacks by authorities.
At the same time, we should work toward building communities that properly value strong, two-parent families and the priority of education — both of which are keys to social and economic progress for all people.
By embracing these values, we can both decrease the numbers of black babies being aborted and the numbers of young blacks headed for lives of crime and incarceration.
Surely, it is a common desire among all humans to provide the best possible futures for their children. Denying this impulse in connection to a child still in the womb is surely a betrayal of a God-given parental instinct.
Remember the words of Sojourner Truth, the former slave who became a great crusader for civil rights.
“Does not God love colored children as well as white children?” she asked. “And did not the same savior die to save the one as well as the other?”
The slogan “black lives matter” has proven effective because it calls us back to a fundamental truth on which America was founded — the idea that we are all endowed by our creator with unalienable rights that include “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” It’s a principle that we as a nation have long espoused but often failed to fully embrace by our actions.
In standing for the sanctity of unborn babies, let us prove our own commitment to the truth that, yes, black lives matter.
Curtis Hill, a Republican, is Indiana’s attorney general.
