(Ms. Akua Furlow, author of this brochure was adopted. Her adopted mother was conceived in rape. The article has been posted with the permission of the Life Education and Resource Network).
In the Bible, in the book of Deuteronomy 30:19, God tells us to "Choose life so that you and your children will live..."
Everyday in America thousands of women and teenagers seek medically induced abortions. Often the women and teenagers who seek to have an abortion have been deceived to believe that their pregnancy is little more than a mass of tissue, a non-living blood clot. Most of them would recoil in horror if they realized that an abortion always stops a beating heart of a baby.
While "pro-choice" feminist push abortion as a "women's right", the truth is that women are being exploited by abortion, especially African-American women. The pro-abortion feminist, or as they like to call themselves, "pro-choice" advocates have successfully identified abortion as a "civil right". Some African Americans, having fought during the civil rights struggle of the 50s and 60s or learned through history books, have somehow been duped into identifying the "pro-choice" movement with the civil right struggles. The civil rights movement was a struggle for equality and human rights. Medical abortion is the premature induced death of a developing human baby, by a doctor, with the consent of the mother for a fee.
Dr. Noreen Johnson, an obstetrician Gynecologist and Infertility Specialist states that, "The first system to develop at about three weeks of embryologic life is the circulatory system. In fact, the heart is formed and functions at four (4) weeks post conception. By the end of the 7th week, the beginnings of all essential external and internal structures are present and the embryo is now called a fetus. The rest of the fetal period is characterized by growth and elaboration of these structures. At ten (10) weeks the face has the human profile and the fetus is about the size of a thumb.(1)
A 1994 "Post Abortion Research Study of African-American Women" showed that of 126 women who respond to a questionnaire 81% indicated one or more psychological complaints. Of the complaints identified, 60% felt feelings of guilt, 49% reported that they had feelings of regret and remorse, 55% reported crying and depression and 35% stated an inability to forgive herself for having an abortion. Other complaints noted were low self-esteem, feelings of despair and helplessness, anger, rage and suicidal tendencies. 30% of the respondents also complained about physical complications that included hemorrhage, infection, incomplete abortion and perforated uterus and intense pain. Only 1% of the respondents stated that they would recommend abortion for others. (2)
In another recent study conducted September 1989 and December 1993 of African-American women the Howard University Cancer Center concluded that significant increase in risk for breast cancer are found to be conferred by experiencing induced abortions. The risk associated with abortion agrees with [a] retrospective study of hospital-controls.(3)
Karen Stevenson, an African-American psychiatrist had this to say about the devastation that abortion brings. "I have encountered tortured women who were struggling with depression, suicidal thoughts, anxiety and drug and alcohol abuse who have had encountered with this thing called "the women's' right, to choose." I've seen women touched by the horror of abortion, yet during my training, this issue was never discussed by my professor as a possible contributor to the persons present state of emotional turmoil. Men and children are also impacted by the implications of abortion.(4)
According to a 1992 U.S. Census report, the number of minority pregnancies that ended by abortion from 1973 (when abortion was legalized throughout the America as a result of the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision) to 1991 corresponded to approximately 21% of the total minority population in 1991. This same source reveals that in 1990 minority women constituted 26% of the female population (age 15-44) yet they underwent approximately 36.1% of the abortions.(5)
The history of America's #1 abortion "providers", the Federation of Planned Parenthood, reeks with the stench of racist and bigotry that adds another level to the insidious attack that has been waged on African-American women throughout the United States.
African -American women are not only exploited by abortion but have been targeted by radical population control groups like the International Federation of Planned Parenthood who want to control the birth rate of the African-American community and people of color throughout the world. Through programs such as the Negro Project of 1929, Planned Parenthood began to spin a web of deception by baiting the African-American community with the pretense of '"family -planning" 'and other "health services".
Archives at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. and at Smith College Library in Northampton, Massachusetts both of which hold books and writing by Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood will clearly reveal the true intent of this abortion promoting birth control federation. Sanger's suggestions to end the "negro problem" was to "secure a representative of colored birth control committee of leading Negroes", "a Steering committee adapt[ed] to the Negro psychology".
In a letter dated December 10, 1939 Sanger writes to a Dr. Clarence Gamble of a plan to "exterminate" the Negro population. Planned Parenthood apologists deny the intent of the statement referring to a genocidal plot yet rebuff the fact that the world's most notorious nazis and racists made up the bulk of the contributors to Sanger's monthly publication, the Birth Control Review. It would be time well spent if African-Americans, especially those Planned Parenthood uses for it's public "service" campaigns, would spend an afternoon at one of the libraries mentioned to do first hand research on this federation that has caused the astronomical decline in the African-American birth rate and has fostered the forced abortion and sterilization policies in China. Many believe the China policy of one child per family is a pilot project that will target other underdeveloped nations and eventually here in the U.S. Planned Parenthood receives millions of tax dollars annually for various "projects" under the guise of teen pregnancy prevention to AIDS education.
African-American women have been lied to, injured and left susceptible to cancer and other health problems as a result of abortion. Other organizations that monitor abortion injury and deaths show that there is a higher rate of injury and deaths among African-Americans as a result of "safe" legal abortion.
One of the most devastating results of abortion is how abortion affects one's life spiritually. A significant number of women and teen who choose abortion come from Christian families. Yet because of their lack of knowledge of fetal development and all the fears of having an unplanned baby, women and teens see abortion as a reasonable alternative. Many choose not to consider adoption because they believe the living child will be a constant reminder of failure. What most do not realize is that abortion always causes the death of their baby by methods that are painful to the baby and often to the mother.
Abortion is no new phenomenon. History reveals that various "civilizations" have tolerated infanticide in one form or another. Throughout Bible history, child sacrifice was a common practice among the pagan nations. Today, thousands of unborn babies are sacrificed on the altars of convenience. While rape and incest are the ideological "golden calf" of abortion proponents, these two categories make up less than 1% of the reasons reported for having obtained an abortion.
We must stand up for the human rights of the smallest and most innocent member of the human family, the unborn child.
There is always a life affirming alternative to abortion. We all must do whatever we can do to help women and their children.
Let's choose LIFE.
1. Dr. Noreen Johnson, "Fetal Development and Fetal Tissue Research" (L.E.A.R.N. Resource Book, 1994).
2. Akron Pregnancy Services, Akron, Ohio, 1994.
3. "Reproductive and lifestyle risk factor for breast cancer in African-American women." (abstracts From the Third Annual Meeting of the International Genetic Epidemiology Society, Paris France, June 1-2, 1994)
4. Dr. Karen Stevenson, "Innocent Blood" (L.E.A.R.N. Resource Book, 1994).