While the state of Mississippi is embroiled in controversy over its Confederacy-based state flag, Mississippi lawmakers have taken a major step in fighting discrimination, this one in abortion.
Republican Gov. Tate Reeves is expected to sign a bill prohibiting abortions based on race, sex, or genetic anomaly, which would make Mississippi the second state to ban all three, behind Missouri. Kentucky has a similar ban that has been put on hold by the courts. Among the actions being taken in this time of focus on racial discrimination, this represents one of the most momentous.
“We are simply saying all these rights that have been won over the years in the area of racism or sexism should be applied to the unborn in Mississippi,” said Republican state Sen. Joey Fillingane. Sue Liebel, the state policy director for the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List said, “Abortions carried out because of a baby’s sex, race, or potential disability, such as Down syndrome, constitutes modern-day eugenics.”
Eugenics is the artificial manipulation of human reproduction (as practiced, for instance, by Nazi Germany) to achieve certain desired genetic outcomes.
It’s not surprising that the abortion industry usually gets to skate by these conversations of eugenics, especially as it relates to race. Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger, who is still revered among the industry’s loudest defenders, was an outspoken eugenicist. Black women account for 36% of abortions as 13% of the female population. In New York City, more black babies are aborted than born.
According to the pro-choice Guttmacher Institute (named after the man who was also a eugenicist who followed Sanger as president of Planned Parenthood), only Missouri and Arizona currently have bans on race-based abortion in place, while Kentucky and Indiana have had theirs blocked by the courts. This is compared to nine states that already have bans on abortions based on the sex of the child.
Mississippi’s bill is a victory not just for pro-lifers, but everyone who proclaims themselves to be an opponent of racism, sexism, and ableism. This, of course, won’t stop pro-abortion groups from suing the state and trying to block the law, but it should show everybody else what a true step toward ending discrimination looks like.
