Filed under: News, Politics, Race and Civil Rights
Across the country, an anti-abortion war has been waged.
Initially headed by Texas-based pro-life organizations Heroic Media and the Radiance Foundation in the South, billboards proclaiming that "the most dangerous place for African-American children is the womb" were seen in Georgia, Florida and Texas.
The campaign then moved west, with a sighting in Los Angeles, but got its stiffest reception when pro-life organization Life Always expanded the controversial message to the Soho region of New York City.
The billboard caught so much heat, that it was taken down by Lamar Advertising and the Mother, Tricia Fraser, of the child featured on the billboard demanded an apology.
Taking down the billboard couldn't stop the abortion conversation that has been unleashed across the country, though, particularly in New York. With renewed vigor, anti-abortion groups, such as EMC Frontline Pregnancy Center (pictured above), whose tagline reads, "Fighting for life in N.Y.C. - the abortion capital of America," have ramped up efforts to "persuade" mothers-to-be that they should keep their babies.
But this (and other) pro-life group's tactics have pro-lifers and the city of New York up in arms.
According to the AP, centers like EMC disguise themselves as anti-abortion centers or medical clinics near real abortion centers. Once a mother-to-be enters their doors trying to seek abortion services, they work to change the woman's mind by providing sonograms of her baby, counseling and paraphernalia displaying mothers with child.
In reaction to these practices, Mayor Michael Bloomberg signed a law requiring all pregnancy centers to overtly disclose precisely which services they offer. New York City Planned Parenthood CEO Joan Malin sees these centers as "anti-choice organizations masquerading as legitimate reproductive health care providers."
Still, anti-abortion activists will not be stymied.
They say that with New York City's abortion rate being nearly double the national average at 41 percent, something has to be done to stop women from aborting their babies and see Bloomberg's abortion law as an infringement of their free speech rights:
"In a lot of other states, there is mandatory counseling, mandatory waiting periods," he said. "We are a substitute for those laws that don't exist in New York," says EMC founder Chris Slattery.
Obviously, tricking mothers in to changing their minds is dubious at best.
No matter what side of the abortion argument you support, though, one thing is clear, the majority of women who get abortions across the country are those who are poor. According to the AP:
"Health officials say 61 percent of the city's pregnancies were unintended in 2009, a potential indicator of poor access to birth control, health care and family planning."
Even Malin agrees with that one:
"Many of the women we see are leading chaotic lives. In my mind, it's related to all the factors of poverty that make it more challenging and difficult to get services."
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that I think the majority of women do not want to get an abortion, but with little money and little resources, it is obvious that many will.
There is a lot of focus on carrying a child to term, but little-to-no focus is put on providing better livelihoods for the children who are here.
Why is that?
In this economic and political climate, every time I turn around, education and community services are being cut. Right now there is a fiscal storm in Congress that is ever-reaching and all-consuming.
I don't want to see babies aborted, but if the world we are bringing them in to has fewer and fewer services and resources for those who need them -- and many conservative lawmakers are effectively legislating for that -- how can we expect to encourage women at the bottom of the totem pole to choose life?
Answer me that.
To me, the conversation about how we properly uplift and support the poor must come before the ideological discussion about whether or not we abort.
Which brings me to my next question, since there are no rallies advocating for poor children who happen to be alive, what is the real motivation for the people behind much of the pro-life Heroic Media, Radiance and Life Always rhetoric?
If they really care about children, they should legislate and agitate for all children -- unborn and alive.
At the EMC clinic, do they provide Mothers with information about how to care for the child economically, socially and academically? Are those points in their fliers or on their videotapes?
Pressuring a woman to keep a child but then providing no educational or monetary relief or guidance for her once she's had the child is schizophrenic and misleading. In this day and age where empty rhetoric makes the biggest impact, I guess asking for genuine ways to problem solve on this issue is just asking for too much.