Kathryn Joyce, author of “Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement,” has a good piece up on “Religion Dispatches” on the effort by anti-choice activists to convince Americans that reproductive freedom is actually a plot to commit genocide against minorities:
Lately, however, antiabortion groups don’t simply seize the mantle of abolitionism, but argue directly that abortion is a concerted attack on people of color. Black and brown populations are, according to the new rhetoric, allegedly targeted for aggressive population control by abortion providers who deliberately place clinics in inner-city, low-income neighborhoods, resulting in higher rates of abortion among Latina and black women in the United States compared to white women.
[A]ntiabortion activists continue to claim that providers are targeting black and Latino populations, and have leafleted inner-city neighborhoods with denunciations of “Klan Parenthood,” juxtaposing images of lynchings and aborted fetuses with the slogan “lynching is for amateurs.” The argument’s popularity is climbing, spurring numerous rallies, publications and organizations devoted to spreading word of abortion providers’ supposedly racist motives. Indeed, Rep. Franks, the lead sponsor of the Susan B. Anthony bill, said he was inspired by a Washington, DC abortion clinic protest last April that denounced the “black genocide” of abortion.
Among the most prominent names in the movement are Day Gardner, of the National Black Pro-Life Union; Rev. Clenard Childress and Johnny Hunter of the group Life Education and Resource Network (LEARN, at the website Black Genocide.org); and Alveda King, niece of Dr. Martin Luther King. King, the media darling of the bunch, addressed the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s 38th Annual Legislative Convention this summer, arguing that “fully 1/4 of the black population of the US has gone missing” due to abortion.
This is something we’ve mentioned several times before and Joyce does a good job of explaining how this message was developed and who is pushing it, so be sure to read the whole thing.
