In the sanctity of life—from womb to tomb into eternity—camp, we believe that civil rights begin in the womb, and the American dream is a dream for all Americans—including the unborn. Now we must ask ourselves: How can the American dream survive if we murder our children?
As one who was once deceived by the misplaced compassion of the pro-abortion agenda, I believe it’s critical during this time to remember the “check marked ‘insufficient funds’” that my uncle, Martin Luther King Jr., introduced during his I Have a Dream speech:
“In a sense we’ve come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the ‘unalienable Rights’ of ‘Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.’ It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked ‘insufficient funds.’
But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we’ve come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.”
During his lifetime, he also said: “The Negro cannot win if he is willing to sacrifice the futures of his children for immediate personal comfort and safety. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
As a Christian preacher and a man of peace, my uncle used the Bible as a template. As a follower of Christ, he sought justice and preached nonviolence and unity. He once said, “We must learn to live together as brothers [and I add as sisters], or perish together as fools.” He also taught from Acts 17:26 that we are one blood and one human race.
Today, I add that we are not colorblind. We must learn to see color as ethnicity, not as separate human races. We must see each other’s concerns and have the grace to respond to those concerns without violence, all critical truths if we are to have a strong, safe and secure nation.
My uncle’s viewpoint leads me to examine where we are in the continuing battle over abortion rights. Here in the 21st century, racial protests and violence and riots continue in some cities. Added to these occurrences, the issue of abortion has been compounded by the Supreme Court’s June 24 overturn of Roe v. Wade, which returned the decision about abortion to the states to reexamine. The fight for justice and human equality continues.
A woman has a right to choose what she will do with her body, but the baby is not her body. Where is the lawyer for the baby?
Covert Racist Agenda
Margaret Sanger, the racist “mother” of legal abortion, had a very specific agenda in mind when she founded Planned Parenthood in 1939. Modern abortion activism actually grew out of the birth control movement, which worked arm-in-arm with America’s eugenics movement in the early to mid-20th century. In fact, Sanger was one of the most vocal advocates for eugenics in America, saying eugenics was “the most adequate and thorough avenue to the solution of racial, political and social problems.”
In her mind, sterilization was a “remedy” to the problem of “an increasing rate of morons,” and she personally helped set up birth control clinics in various minority communities. However, Sanger also knew she had to be covert about her true intentions.
“The most successful, educational appeal to the Negro is through a religious appeal,” she wrote. “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.”
Sanger’s goal with eugenics was to eliminate America’s “unfit” minority groups. Consequently, she gave a speech on the “Negro Project” to the Ku Klux Klan in which she advocated for the “gradual suppression, elimination and eventual extinction, of defective stocks—those human weeds which threaten the blooming of the finest flowers of American civilization.”
Martin Luther King Jr. was among a select group of Black leaders hand-picked to promote a seemingly beneficial plan to promote healthy family planning. But this plan and its hidden agenda were a Trojan horse to the Black community.
In 1966, Martin Luther King Jr., who supported natural family planning, was offered the Planned Parenthood Margaret Sanger Award. The acceptance speech, delivered in his absence by his wife, Coretta Scott King, pointed to the benefits of family planning among Black families and the “kinship” between the civil rights movement and Sanger’s early efforts.
In addition, this speech, which sounded nothing like the voice of my uncle, did not include the word “abortion,” and there is much speculation about its real author. During her lifetime, Aunt Coretta, unlike her husband, supported abortion and a more liberal view on marriage and human sexuality than he held.
My uncle, a man of love, peace, nonviolence and strong Christian faith, would be assassinated before the truth of the Planned Parenthood map for genocide would be made public after the passage of Roe v. Wade. However, the abortion agenda stands in direct conflict with his teachings.
I have often wondered who hurt Margaret Sanger when she was a girl. What happened to her that was so bad it caused her to want to circumvent the birth of babies, maim women and disregard the seed of the fathers? Modern-day pro-abortion advocates have tried to distance themselves from Sanger’s racist views, as seen in the following excerpt of a statement issued on July 24, 2020, by Planned Parenthood, North Central States:
“Sanger’s promotion of eugenics was egregious and wrong. While we acknowledge the benefits that we have reaped from her advocacy for birth control, we take responsibility for the damage that was done. She willfully ignored the incredible harm that her beliefs caused, especially to people of color, people with disabilities, and people with low incomes. We condemn that behavior.”
However, people such as Abby Johnson, a former Planned Parenthood clinic director who is now a pro-life activist, have confirmed that eugenics remains part of the organization’s hidden agenda.
Interestingly enough, research supports the fact that after the Supreme Court’s ruling in favor of legal abortion with the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, in areas where most of its clientele was Caucasian, Planned Parenthood sometimes offered opportunities to help Caucasian mothers keep their babies. Black mothers, on the other hand, were disproportionately encouraged to choose the “option” of abortion.
Spirit of Error
As we ponder these awful facts, we must examine the spirit of error that gripped people like Sanger and that deceives our lawmakers and the people of America and the world regarding the sanctity of life. For too long we have accepted the lie that abortion is needed to correct racial disharmony, women’s reproductive health, economic crisis, relationship woes and so much more.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Killing innocent babies will never solve our problems. Abortion is death care, not health care. Murder of babies by abortion is not compassion. Abortion is sin and error.
Recently, CNN ran an article titled “Black women say they are invisible in abortion rights fight. ‘We are still forgotten within all of this.’”
The piece, which highlights the stories of five Black women who had abortions, starts out by saying that the reversal of Roe v. Wade “stripped [many Black women] of bodily autonomy” and “created another barrier to economic security and choosing the course of their future.” Widespread abortion access, the article claims, has “especially benefited Black women who continue to fight for an equal place in the U.S.”
To put it plainly, these claims couldn’t be more absurd. According to 2019 figures, Black women account for 38.4% of abortion patients, the largest share among other ethnic and racial groups. In that year, they had the highest abortion rate of any group in the country, with 23.8 abortions per 1,000 women. A 2018 CDC study showed that Black women had the highest abortion ratio at 335 abortions per 1,000 live births, a rate three times that of white women. They also account for about 33% of all repeat abortions, even though only 13.4% of the U.S. population identify their race as Black.
In other words, about 353,000 Black babies are aborted every year, 968 every day, 40 every hour, and one every minute and a half. All in all, about 27 million Black babies have been aborted since the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973. An estimated half of all these abortions have killed Black girls.
We should ask a better question to CNN: Is there no “equal place in the U.S.” for female babies in the womb? Do aborted Black baby girls have rights and dignity? Should they have the opportunity to choose their own and pursue the American dream?
We have seen that racial prejudice is nothing new to the abortion movement. As Americans, we must ask ourselves how much has changed from just a few decades back. Today, in the 25 U.S. counties with the most abortions, about 86% of Planned Parenthood abortion mills are in or near minority neighborhoods.
Of course, even though pro-abortion advocates admit that Sanger was a racist, they deny any relationship between the modern abortion movement and eugenics. However, with the overwhelming evidence that the underlying goal of abortion in America today remains a secret eugenics project, we should ask ourselves: Why is the truth so distorted?
Unheard Black Voices
If CNN really wants more Black female voices in the abortion debate, I have some suggestions. They could reach out to Catherine Davis, a strong Black woman who grew up in poverty under segregation, worked her way through college and law school, and now uses her voice to stand up for life in the womb.
Or they could try Day Gardener, formerly Miss Atlantic City and Miss Delaware, who made history as the first Black contestant to reach the top 10 finalists in the Miss America pageant. Day went on to launch a successful business career before she founded the National Black Pro-Life Union to defend the unborn.
And my own testimony is tied to the pro-life cause.
In 1950, my mother was considering an abortion when my grandaddy convinced her that I was a human life, even though I was still in the womb. I was saved from abortion that day, and I truly feel that God has commissioned me to raise my voice in defense of life at all stages.
Strangely enough, CNN didn’t reach out to any of us for comment. For some reason, pro-abortion politicians like Stacy Abrams, who has used Christianity to defend her pro-abortion views, are grabbing the spotlight instead.
As the daughter of two pastors, Abrams said she has a “strong moral core” and a good understanding of Scripture. During a speech at the Allen Temple AME Church in Woodstock, Georgia, Abrams claimed the Bible supports abortion.
“I was trained to read and understand the Bible, and I will tell you this: There is nothing about the decision to eliminate access to abortion care that is grounded in anything other than cruelty and meanness and danger in the state of Georgia,” she told the church. “Nothing.”
Sadly, many pro-abortion advocates—most of whom, like Abrams, claim to stand up for minorities—are carrying on the vile legacy of racism. In contrast, the pro-life movement stands up for the rights and dignity of everyone involved in the abortion debate: the woman, the unborn child and the father.
With the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons upon us, we can well afford to be sensitive and generous with our prayers and outreach to others. For now, we must work in peace to ensure civil rights, women’s rights and human rights, all of which begin at conception. And we must continue to pray—with faith, hope, love and compassion—that we become a nation that cherishes life for all God’s children, from the womb to the tomb into eternity.
Dr. Alveda C. King is the daughter of the late slain civil rights activist Rev. A. D. King, the niece of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and a Christian evangelist. Author of the bestsellers King Rules and We’re Not Colorblind, she is also founder of Speak for Life and chairman of the Center for The American Dream AFPI. She currently serves as a Fox News Channel contributor and is the host of Alveda King’s House on Fox Nation. She is a Newsmax opinion contributor; a member of Optimist International; former college professor; and a film and music veteran. Alveda is also a former Georgia State legislator, a twice-assigned presidential appointee and a 2021 recipient of the Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award.
