Toomanyaborted.com is launching a campaign targeted towards African-American women in the metro Atlanta area. They've already began putting up billboards in the area, and they are planning to put up as many as 35 by Feb. 15.
Just to give you all a little background about this organization: it's collaborating with The Radiance Foundation and Georgia's Operation Outrage on its "Endangered Species" campaign. According to its website, it's the brainchild of The Radiance Foundation's co-founder Ryan Bomberger, who's spent decades advocating adoption and foster care.
As an aside, yes, Georgia has an exquisite foster care system. The children are only at high risk for abuse and neglect, complaints about the abuse they are facing are not fully probed. The problems with Georgia's child care system have even led to the resignation of the state's child advocate. I could go on and on to include the number of heart breaking cases that have occured in Georgia and the state's persistent problems that continue to be the state's 500-pound gorilla in the state legislature.
Let me start by saying that I understand why this group would be alarmed, if their stats are accurate. Since 1973, these people claim that more than 14 million black babies have been aborted and in Georgia, black women make up more than 50 percent of abortions performed on, despite being only about 30 percent of the state's population. Who couldn't argue with those statistics?
My problem with this campaign is that it's eerily similar to the anti-Planned Parenthood campaigns that use the groups sorrid history of its sterilization campaign against African-American women to promote their cause. They continue to use race and class to promote their own selfish goal: to rollback the constitutional protections provided to women with the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.
These people could care less about the plight of African-American women and children. They like to plaster pictures of black women speaking out against abortion and stock pictures of beautiful black babies to appeal to the sympathies of the African-American community--just like any other nonprofit who claims to be "looking out" for our interests."
As I mentioned in a previous post, black women historically have not been on the front lines speaking out against or for abortion. Maybe this and other groups' who continue to use our images to promote their own selfish motives will stir some people, but I would suspect the majority of black women (and men) will see past their deceptive advertising and understand the true reason for their "concern" about our plight.
I can't avoid the obvious question here: if these groups are so concerned about my sister's plight, why are they not on the front lines fighting for our right to live in safe and secure neighborhoods, have equal access to the health care services that our white counterparts can enjoy or to protect our image from being used and abused by the media? Where are they?
Why aren't they concerned about the continued lag black children continue to have when it comes to education? Why aren't they concerned about the black children who have to go to bed with the sounds of gunfire in the background? Why aren't they concerned about the whopping number of black children living in poverty and are going to bed hungry at night?
Like other anti-abortion groups, these people could care less about the true problems plaguing various communities in which they've taken up the task to "protect" from the evil abortion industry. All they are after is the overturning of Roe v. Wade, which would inevitably return our society back to the times when women had risk their lives by undergoing back-alley abortion or resorting to their own methods of abortion.
Again, I must ask these groups: when are you going to drop your facade of concern and step for the rights of black women and children?
