Last month, Life Always, the group behind the website ThatsAbortion.com, put up a billboard at the corner of Watts and Avenue of the Americas in New York City.
The billboard didn’t feature any grisly photos of aborted fetuses or hateful remarks about abortionists. Instead, passersby were greeted by the image of a lovely, little black girl in a pink dress beneath the caption, “The most dangerous place for an African American-American is in the womb.”
Naturally, pro-choice politicians went nuts.
Demanding the billboard be removed, Bill de Blasio, New York City’s public advocate, told reporters that the ad “violates the values of New Yorkers” and accused the ad’s creators of “intolerance and bad judgment.”
Planned Parenthood also chimed in, calling the ad a “condescending effort to stigmatize and shame African-American women.”
Christine Quinn, Speaker of the New York City Council, told reporters that, “Common decency demands [the billboard] be taken down. To refer to a woman’s legal right to an abortion as a ‘genocidal plot,’” she said, “is not only absurd, but offensive to women and to communities of color.”
Whew! With all this moral outrage, you’d think the message of the Life Always board was an outright lie. But unfortunately for the critics (and especially for thousands of unborn black children), the womb really is the most dangerous place for an African-American, especially in New York. According to the city’s Department of Health, nearly sixty percent of pregnancies among African-American women there end in abortion!
Sixty percent! And I’m sad to say that New York City is not alone. According to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, abortion is the leading cause of death among African-Americans nationwide.
No wonder black Pastor and pro-life champion Walter Hoye calls does indeed call abortion “black genocide.”
Dr. Alveda King, (niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.), calls the abortion business “the most racist industry in America.” Quoting Catholic philosopher Michael Novak, she writes, “Since the number of current living Blacks (in the U.S.) is 31 million, the missing 10 million represents an enormous loss, for without abortion, America’s Black community…would be 35% larger than it is. Abortion has swept through the Black community like a scythe, cutting down every fourth member.”
Well, back in New York, the advertising firm that produced the Life Always billboard backed down under mounting pressure, and just a few days after it went up, the ad was removed.
In a statement afterwards, Life Always rightly defends its intent behind the billboard, saying “[This] message holds true, and truth has a place in the public square. The intent of the board is to call attention to the tragedy and the truth that abortion is outpacing life in the black community.”
Folks, truth does have a place in the public square, and the Church must never be silent when it comes to defending the life and dignity of “all of God’s children.”
This article published on March 28, 2011.
Chuck Colson's daily BreakPoint commentary airs each weekday on more than one thousand outlets with an estimated listening audience of one million people. BreakPoint provides a Christian perspective on today's news and trends via radio, interactive media, and print.
