But pushing for more black babies (three times the average) to be aborted is not racist?
(CBN) — A new pro-life campaign in California seeking to combat abortion in the black community is drawing charges of racism from Planned Parenthood and pro-choice advocates.
The state currently leads the nation in abortions, with more than 214,000 performed in 2008. And national statistics suggest pregnant black women are three times as likely to have the procedure.
In response, The Issues4Life Foundation and The Radiance Foundation have launched a pro-life billboard campaign with the goal of saving the lives of hundreds of thousands of black babies aborted in America each year.
“The impact of abortion in the black community is the Darfur of America,” Walter B. Hoye II, president of the Issues4Life Foundation, told Life Site News.
The signs in question contain the message “Black & Beautiful” and are going up in largely black communities in Oakland, Calif.
“I had an appointment with death. My mother’s name was in a book,” one pro-life advocate said at a news conference Saturday. “There was an appointed time for me to die, and if God hadn’t broken that appointment, I wouldn’t be here today.”
But Planned Parenthood and California pro-choice groups are calling the ads racist. They say the “black & beautiful” slogan is too close to the “black is beautiful” cultural-pride campaign made popular in the 1960s.
Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., has also spoken out against the billboards.
“I am deeply offended by the race-based billboards that are being displayed in my congressional district by the Radiance Foundation and Issues4life,” she said in a statement.
“These billboards stigmatize women of color and perpetuate myths about parenting skills and the types of women who seek and use abortion services,” Lee added.