Silent No More: A Major Crisis in the African-American Community

The National Black Catholic Congress ^ | 12.03.03 | Rev. John J. Raphael, SSJ

[Coleus]

Silent No More: A Major Crisis in the African-American Community
By Rev. John J. Raphael, SSJ
Roman Catholic Chaplain
Howard University, Washington, DC

Do you know what the leading cause of death in the African American Community since 1973 is? Think about it for a minute. Is it heart disease-2,266,789 deaths since 1973, cancer-1,638,350, or accidents-370,723? Is it AIDS-203,695, or violent crimes-306, 313? There is one possibility that is often overlooked. It happens 1452 times a day in our community. It has taken over 13 million Black lives within the last 30 years. It has taken 1/3 of our present population. What is it? ABORTION!

Don't believe it? Well, you don't have to, but you would be a fool not to because the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has provided the tragic statistics. According to the CDC, since 1973, the year of the Supreme Court Decision Roe vs. Wade, 13 million (13,000,000) African American lives have been lost to abortion. The CDC reports that of the approximately 4000 abortions that are performed daily in the United States, 1452 of them are performed on African American women and their pre-born children. This means that although African Americans represent only 12% of the population of the United States, they account for 35% of the abortions performed in this country.

A Crisis in Civic Leadership

What is so amazingly alarming about these statistics is not only the staggering number of African American deaths that are legally sanctioned, but the relative apathy of the overall African American population to this slaughter-when is the last time you were at a Pro-Life Rally-and, even worse, the active promotion and support of legalized abortion and the extension of so-called reproductive or abortion "rights" by the overwhelming majority of African American politicians and civil rights leaders.

Currently in Congress every member of the Congressional Black Caucus identifies him or herself as pro-choice. Because of the peculiar mix of race and politics in America in general, and especially in Washington, DC, on the political level Respect for Life concerns and legislation have by and large been cast as a one party issue. The result is that today there are no African American voices raised in defense of the unborn in our nation's federal legislative branch.

The same folks who profess to fight for the interests of African Americans in health care, educational and employment opportunities, voter representation, affirmative action and all those other areas of civic life for which early civil rights pioneers fought so hard, have abandoned the cause of justice in reference to respect for the lives of innocent and defenseless pre-born African-Americans. They have sided with those who use the Supreme Court decision Roe vs. Wade to deny a whole class of persons the right to exist.

The irony here is especially tragic since the Constitution of the United States sanctioned slavery and the "3/5ths clause" which relegated Africans in America to the status of chattel slavery. It was the Supreme Court that continued to support this same Constitutional "de-personalization" and the consequent second class status of people of African descent through two infamous decisions, namely Dred Scott, which upheld the fugitive slave law, and Plessy vs. Ferguson, which affirmed the Jim Crow system of segregation in the south. The famed decision mandating the dismantling of segregation "with all deliberate speed" in Brown vs. The Board of Education of Topeka, KS (the case argued by the late Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall) was a significant reversal of the Court's hitherto support of less than equal protection under the law for persons of African descent in America.

This abandonment by major Black leaders of the newest unprotected class, the pre-born, was made painfully clear in January of this year when Reverend Al Sharpton, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for the presidency of the United States, addressed the NARAL (National Abortion Rights Action League) Pro-Choice America Dinner in Washington, DC. After proudly announcing that he had just crossed the picket line of pro-life protesters using his now famous line "it is time for the Christian Right to meet the right Christians," Sharpton went on to defend his vociferous support of legalized abortion. He said:

I trust the decisions of women because it is a human right that Roe vs. Wade decided on. This is not about abortion, this is about human rights, this is about human dignity, this is about women having their say-so over their own body and over how they will decide to proceed with their life, and if America is to be America, we must protect women's right to choose for themselves.

It is hard to follow the logic of the above statement, after all, this debate, this crisis, is about abortion and the human dignity of a pre-born life, it is about the body of a woman and also about the body of her child that will be dismembered and thrown away as if it were trash without even the benefit a decent burial. What one does learn from Sharpton's further remarks is that, for him, the legal sanction to destroy a pre-born baby is a civil "right" just as the other rights Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and others fought for. He illustrates this by linking the fight to establish Dr. King's birthday as a national holiday with the fight to preserve legalized abortion on demand today. This is how Sharpton phrased it:

But let's not forget, we didn't get Dr. King's birthday because someone donated it, we had to march, we had to petition, we had to fight, we had to lobby to get that birthday, and in the end it was a great victory because even in the deep South, where he was castigated, where he was denounced, yesterday federal buildings were closed in honor of his day. We must have the same determination to keep fighting. Remember how we got Roe vs. Wade in the first place. Some of us may have to roll up our sleeves, but it does not matter, we cannot let them roll back the clock.

Note in particular the use of the words we, us, and them. Who is being designated by these terms? Is the pro-abortion "community," or is the African-American community being designated by the terms we or us? Has he linked the two groups inseparably? Are those who support the unborn person's right to live being designated by the term them? If the defenders of unborn lives are them, then Sharpton's is a particularly perverted understanding of civil rights. However, this speech is a classic example of the rhetoric employed by many national African-American political and social leaders in support of a practice that is the cause of the greatest number of African-American deaths in this country.
 continue with the article on the website, it's 10 pages long......

I have not spoken about the resources already available such as Project Gabriel which gives real and meaningful assistance to pregnant women, and Project Rachel which offers essential counseling services to post-abortive women. I have not spoken about the particular need to have active and committed Black Catholic participation in the work of L.E.A.R.N. (Life Education And Resource Network), the most effective and faithful African-American Respect for Life network, (www.blackgenocide.org).

All these elements and more form the content of the conversation we must begin and continue to have at every level. The ball has been dropped, but we must pick up that ball so that all God's children might have life and have it more abundantly!

If anyone is interested in or in need of prenatal/postnatal care please visit Project Gabriel's website at: http://www.gabrielproject.com/ for more information.

If anyone is interested in or in need of post-abortive counseling services, please visit Project Rachel's website at: http://www.hopeafterabortion.com/ for more information.

By Rev. John J. Raphael, SSJ
Roman Catholic Chaplain
Howard University, Washington, DC

[Coleus]

Black Genocide-Planned Parenthood
Black Genocide-The Negro Project
Eugenics
BondInfo.org
The Negro Project
Planned Parenthood and Black Genocide
The Negro Project- Margaret Sanger's EUGENIC Plan for Black Americans
"Ethnic Cleansing", HUD and CIA Drug Dealing
I Don't Want to be Black Anymore
CWA--The Negro Project: Margaret Sanger's Eugenic Plan for Black Americans

Abortion: Black Genocide!, Archives,Press Releases

[Alberta's Child]

I've decided that the best way to end abortion in this country is to mount a campaign to outlaw it for everyone except black women. Watch how quickly the Congressional Black Caucus jumps on board the pro-life bandwagon once the eugenic aspect of it becomes too blatant to ignore.

[Coleus]

Black Catholics for Life

African,Abortion Awareness Month in the Black Community,

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[WorkingClassFilth]

"Margaret Sanger's Eugenic Plan for Black Americans"

You hit that nail right on the head. Needs far more exposure to demonstrate just who is the REAL master on the plantation.

[Julliardsux]

I've been saying this to people for a long time - if you look at government statistics, it is startling. Approx 40% of African American pregnancies end in abortion.

The next time you are in a debate with a white woman about abortion, make sure you say that abortion is a racist tool used by white women against minorities and cite the statistic.

Remember, that liberals always find racism in the quota numbers without regard to actual cause of those numbers (that is, they would look at the race numbers at a law school and immediately conclude racism based few minorities, when it could just be based on supply of qualified applicants).
that rationale cannot, therefore, deny that abortion is a racist policy.

[freedumb2003]

I've decided that the best way to end abortion in this country is to mount a campaign to outlaw it for everyone except black women.

We on the Right have tried for years to inform minorities, blacks first and foremost, that this is nothing less than a self-induced genocide. In exchange for our care for life, including (and I would posit especially) theirs, we get called narrow-minded and sexist (and "racist" tossed in because we are, well, conservative).

They kill themselves before birth, then after birth. Thank God that Condi and Colin survived their rush to the sea. Maybe they will see that the biggest killer of blacks is NOW and the Demoncrat Party.

If we were the racists they say we are, we would encourage and support and subsidize abortions. I wonder if any DU lurkers are ready for the fact we love the "colored" (their term, NOT MINE) community much more than they do!

[Julliardsux]

You are a stupid, racist pig.

[Happy2BMe]

Question: How many Americans have been murdered by abortionists over the past twenty-five years?

Answer: Over TWENTY MILLION!

Question: What economic impact does a void of TWENTY MILLION workers have on the American tax base?

Answer: Look South. Mexican immigrants are replacing the murdered American workers and being allowed to do so to make up for the BILLIONS OF DOLLARS in LOST tax revenue.

Why?

Answer: Somebody has to pay for the baby boomer's SOCIAL SECURITY RETIREMENT (yes the very same ones who murdered over TWENTY MILLION of their children).

[FormerACLUmember]

Margaret Sanger founded Planned Parenthood and was an absolute flaming racist. She created abortion clinics for the express purpose in eliminating the inferior black race and other undesirable (in her sick evil mind) minorities.

It is laughable to see how the leftists tell her story, like reading old Soviet propaganda describing the kindness of Stalin.

[FormerACLUmember]

Question: How many Americans have been murdered by abortionists over the past twenty-five years? Answer: Over TWENTY MILLION! Question: What economic impact does a void of TWENTY MILLION workers have on the American tax base? Answer: Look South. Mexican immigrants are replacing the murdered American workers and being allowed to do so to make up for the BILLIONS OF DOLLARS in LOST tax revenue. Why? Answer: Somebody has to pay for the baby boomer's SOCIAL SECURITY RETIREMENT (yes the very same ones who murdered over TWENTY MILLION of their children).

absolutely true!

[mhking]

Black conservative ping

If you want on (or off) of my black conservative ping list, please let me know via FREEPmail. (And no, you don't have to be black to be on the list!)

Extra warning: this is a high-volume ping list.

[CPT Clay]

Issues for the Black community;
1. School choice for inner city children(vouchers)

2. Social Security which a black man pays his entire working career and collects very little.(hint private accounts can be passed on to heirs.)(average live expectancy 65 for black men)

3. Abortion the #1 killer of African Americans.


how much longer are you going to stay on the plantation?

[Palladin]

Excellent article on the Silent Holocaust that is abortion.

[John Beresford Tipton]

Interesting that you did not say he was also incorrect.

[cyborg]

How is that?

[Julliardsux]

This is from the CDC:
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss5109a1.htm#top

"[T]he abortion ratio for black women (529 per 1,000 live births) was 3.0 times the ratio for white women (177 per 1,000 live births). Additionally, the abortion ratio for women of other races (367 per 1,000 live births) was 2.1 times the ratio for white women. The abortion rate for black women (31 per 1,000 women) was 3.0 times the rate for white women (10 per 1,000 women). The abortion rate for women of other races (26 per 1,000 women) was 2.5 times the rate for white women."

For every 1000 african americans born, 529 are aborted. Let that sink in.

This is racist - white women believe that it is better for these african american children to be aborted to cut down on economic plight of inner cities.

[Julliardsux]

I am pretty sure that: (a) calling STD a stupid, racist pig based on that ignorent statement implies that is because he is incorrect - pointing out a truth is not racist per se; and (b) it was a quick-type response, not a dissertation.

Conservatives need to attack racism like crazy, since we carry a heavier burden in convincing people we are not, since we oppose affirmative action, reparations, and Jesse Jackson.

[John Beresford Tipton]

*ignorent*