Protestors carry signs to defend life and boycott Planned Parenthood during a rally on Capitol Hill last week. (HENRIETTA GOMES | CATHOLIC HERALD)
Toting signs to boycott Planned Parenthood, about 100 pro-lifers joined leaders in the black community on Capitol Hill last week to protest federal funding of Planned Parenthood.
“The black community and America in general does not know the truth about Planned Parenthood,” said Sherly Jourdain, holding a sign that read, “Stop targeting my community.”
In recent months, Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider, whose founder advocated a eugenic philosophy, has come under fire after students from the University of California-Los Angeles recorded a telephone conversation where a representative was “excited” to take a donation from a student who posed as a racist donor and asked that his “gift” be specifically earmarked for a “black baby.”
Alveda King, the niece of Martin Luther King Jr., who spoke during the rally, called Planned Parenthood “lying and racist.” King, who is an associate with Priests for Life, said America is plagued with the “scourge of abortion.”
Planned Parenthood receives more than $300 million in taxpayer dollars annually, and in 2006-07 reported a nearly $1 billion income in its annual financial disclosure report. They have more than 850 facilities nationwide. According to the Alan Guttmacher Institute and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the majority of abortion facilities are located in minority neighborhoods.
King regretfully spoke of two abortions that she had, and said Planned Parenthood lied to her. “They told me my baby was just a blob of tissue.”
During the protest held in front of the Democratic National Committee Headquarters and then in front of the Republican National Committee Headquarters, leaders called upon Arizona Sen. John McCain and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, the two presumptive Republican and Democratic presidential candidates respectively, not to accept the $10 million in campaign funds pledged by Planned Parenthood. It is a bi-partisan issue, said Day Gardner, president and founder of the National Black Pro-life Union. Gardner called upon black America to “wake up” and stand up to Planned Parenthood.
Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, began the “Negro Project” in 1939 as an effort to get African-Americans to adopt sterilization and birth control. The goal was to employ ministers and leaders in the community to encourage others to use these methods.
Jourdain, who stood next to a group of 30 wearing black T-shirts that read “stop funding racism,” said that Sanger sought to use birth control and abortion to “reduce the number of children in what she thought were lower class groups,” she said. “It’s something to consider because obviously the mission that Margaret Sanger started … They’re still fulfilling that mission today.”
According to the Centers of Disease Prevention and Control, abortion is the leading cause of death in the black community, above heart disease, cancer, accidents, AIDS and violent crimes combined.
“Abortion is a civil wrong,” said King, who told the crowd that in 1966 before the legalization of abortion, Planned Parenthood awarded Martin Luther King with the Margaret Sanger Award for his “courageous resistance to bigotry and his lifelong dedication to the advancement of social justice and human dignity.”
“They lied to my uncle,” said King, daughter of civil rights activist A.D. King.
Her uncle, “was deceived by their actions, as I was when I believed they were trying to help me by providing abortions.” It was a ploy to obtain approval from the black community.
Gardner noted the $300 million in taxpayer dollars used to fund Planned Parenthood could be used for refurbishing inner city schools, improving housing or purchasing prescription medication for those in need, but instead the money goes to an organization, she said, that is racist and that takes life.
Planned Parenthood provides abortions under the guise of health care, said the Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson. “What is healthy about killing unborn children? Black Americans are being wiped out,” he lamented. More black children are being aborted than being born, he said.
“We will not stop until this ends,” he promised the crowd, including 33 members of New Carol Baptist Church from Montclair, N.J.
Regina Washington made the road trip on a bus with the group. “The majority of Planned Parenthood facilities are in black neighborhoods and it affects us the most,” she said.
Henrietta Gomes can be reached at hgomes@catholicherald.com.