There aren't many
things in life that really upset me.
Ever since the
doctors said that my husband and I would never have children naturally - you
know, old school, the way we've been making babies since Adam and Eve - and I
proceeded to get pregnant naturally (yep, intercourse) six months later. Ever since then I have been on this crazy
road of learning more about women, childbirth, and babies in general.
Before having my son
I dove headfirst into researching my options about birth. Since then I have
become a doula and childbirth educator. But it wasn't until spring of 2014 at the
Southwest Birth Roundup when my path took a major turn. I listened intently to
the incredible midwife Jennie Joseph toss out matter-of-fact statistics on
infant and maternal mortality rates among African-Americans. These statistics
brought me to a place of great grief. No longer was I just a doula and
childbirth educator. In that moment I became an advocate. I wanted to shout
from the mountaintops how completely wrong this was. And is.
Then I came home and
I looked up more information about these phenomena that I had no clue about. I
ended up falling down a rabbit hole of information that truly infuriated me.
This is some of what
I learned (see footnotes for sources):
African-American
women are three to four times more likely to be harmed or die during birth.
African-American
babies are two to three times more likely to be born too soon, too small, or
too sick to survive.
The African-American
population in the USA is 13.2% (as of 2014). The white population in the USA
77.7%.
However, the African-American
abortion percentage is 37%. The white abortion percentage is 34%.
The infant mortality
rate (deaths per 1,000 live births) is 12.2 for African-Americans, and 5.3 for
non-Hispanic whites, and 5.4 for Hispanics.
Get more info by
clicking this link, and see that the rates stay basically
the same across all states in the U.S.
The maternal mortality
rate is similarly disproportionate. Looking at deaths per 100,000 live births,
the number of African-Americans in the U.S. is 42.8, for whites 12.5, and for
other races 17.3.
My reaction to this
is: what in the actual hell? Why is there not national outrage over these
figures and why did I not know this? I haven't even begun writing about Planned
Parenthood. Are you ready?
Planned Parenthood
was founded by proud racist and eugenicist Margaret Sanger. If you look her up,
you'll find it pretty incredible what she was capable of doing while others bowed
at her feet like she was God. She even had black ministers involved to back up
her "service," but it was all based in pure deceit. If the devil
could dress up like someone and fool people to believe that what he was doing were
good, he would dress up like Margaret Sanger.
Here is a nice little
quote from Ms. Sanger. "We do not want word to go out that we want to
exterminate the Negro population, and the minister is the man who can
straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious
members." Planned Parenthood
does many good things but... (Yes, there will always be a big ol' "BUT:
when it comes to PP.)
But... they kill
babies. Not only do they kill babies or "clumps of tissue" or
"products of conception" (as they would like to put it), they
strategically set up shop in lower economic communities, all in the name of
providing "services" for those in need.
The major problem
with this is that although African-American women make up a small
percentage of the population of the U.S, these women make
up nearly the largest percentage of women getting abortions. I had
someone argue that African-American women make up the largest percentage of
abortions because they are the minority. Please someone enlighten me, educate
me on how this makes a lick of sense.
In 2011 there were
76,251 abortions in NYC. Of these aborted babies, 9,950 were white, which is
12.5% of the total. A whopping 35,188 were black babies, which is 46.1% of the
total.
Did you know that in
2012 there were more black babies aborted in NYC than born? There were 31,328 babies
aborted in the city that year, versus 24,758 allowed to live.
I write this not as a
black woman with an agenda against the evil white man. Please, if anyone knows
me, I am the furthest thing from a racist, and if you think that I'm racist
because I'm writing about the disparities experienced by black women and babies
you might want to look at yourself for a second. This is not about you. This is
about life. When it comes to the right to life there should be no color divide -
but obviously there is.
I am writing this
because to me the facts are so obviously sickening that this needs to be a
topic of discussion amongst everyone.
Something needs to be done. I'm tired of
not seeing many faces of color in support of life... LIFE! I'm tired of these
statistics being brushed off as if they are unimportant. Most do not know them.
I did not know most of this until last year.
I'm also very tired
of the whole argument: "Well, they had a choice!" As if black women
have so very little regard for the life of their children that there could not
possibly be any other factors that contribute to it. Let us not forget that I
included statistics of infant and MATERNAL mortality rates here.
Something bigger is going on and it is going to take more
than a handful of white people standing up for life. It is going to take people
opening their eyes to the immorality that has overtaken hearts and blinded us
to this mass genocide. It is going to take more than a couple of black people
writing a blog. It is going to take people of color speaking out and standing
up for what is right!
I want people to
start asking questions and taking action. I want people to stop with their Facebook
posts about how abortion is so bad and start actually doing something. Give
your money to organizations that provide free or low-cost care to women, that do not
support abortion. Adopt!
We need compassionate,
empathetic people to get out from behind their computer screens and actually do
something.
We especially need to
start empowering each other in this fight for life. Planned Parenthood has not
empowered women. They have stripped from millions of women a natural power we
as women are only capable of possessing and that is carrying and caring for our
children.
I was asked to pour
out my heart and that is what I've done. Now, let's all do something together.
______________
The following are
sources for information contained in this blog post. New Wave Feminists always
encourages readers to read and research further.
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