Black pro-life leader: ‘We don’t have to kill our children to be successful’

by Ben Johnson

WASHINGTON, D.C., February 23, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) – A black pro-life leader is fighting back against comments from the black outreach director of Planned Parenthood that advocates for the unborn “could care less” about children once they are born.

Ludwig Gaines, the African American leadership and engagement director for Planned Parenthood Federation of America, told a reporter from CNSNews.com that those who supported an abortion ban under consideration in Congress were guilty of “hypocrisy” that “needs to be exposed.”

“Quite frankly, if you look at the records of the proponents of this bill and others who would support it, they are the very same people who will not support after-school care, or food stamps, or other programs meant to elevate communities of color,” Gaines said.

“Suddenly, they’re concerned about black children quite frankly prior to birth, but could care less once they arrive.”

Gaines’ comments were made in opposition to a bill introduced by Rep. Trent Franks, R-AZ, that would not allow abortionists inside Washington, D.C., city limits to abort children at 20 weeks of gestation or older. Under the Constitution, Congress exercises control over the District of Columbia. 

Day Gardener, president of the National Black Pro-Life Union, told LifeSiteNews.com that Planned Parenthood has been marketing abortion to the black community since its founding. “The whole Negro Project back in [the 1930s] was to do exactly that,” she said.

Margaret Sanger, a supporter of racial eugenics who once addressed the Ku Klux Klan, “hired – and I think that’s a key word there – charismatic leaders and ministers and community leaders, those people who they knew could get the message of death across to their congregations, communities, and neighborhoods.”

Even today, “people for money…will continue to perpetrate this horrible lie that we need to kill our children to have a better life,” Gardener told LifeSiteNews.

“We don’t have to kill our children to be successful or educated,” she said. “As a matter of fact, our children will make us better.”

She said that Gaines’ words were disingenuous and misleading. “If you do not allow [babies] to be born they have no life at all,” she said.

Pro-life advocates have long noted the disproportionate rate of abortion in the black community. Rev. Walter B. Hoye II, president and founder of the Issues4Life Foundation, told this year’s March for Life, “Even though we are only 12 percent of the population, we account for over 30 percent of all abortion in this country.” Sixty percent of black babies in New York City are aborted. Pastor Luke Robinson told marchers abortion was “genocidal” and “the destruction of a people.”

“Where is the voice of President Obama? Where is the voice of Jesse Jackson? Where is the voice of Al Sharpton? Where is the voice of the Black Congressional Caucus?” he asked.

Gardener said pro-lifers love children, and their mothers, before and after pregnancy by providing medical care, vitamins, and housing to some prospective mothers. “Then they provide what the mother needs afterwards – like formula, diapers, car seats, and cribs,” she said.

“I think the sad thing is that we are taught to believe this lie that we need all these subsidized programs from the government,” Gardener told LifeSiteNews. “I believe that we should do as God intended, that we reach out a hand and help each other.”

The high abortion rate among blacks has had unforeseen and negative consequences on their political power, as well, Gardner said.

In the 1960s, “everybody wanted to reach out to us and get our vote, especially the Democrats,” she said. “We were a voting bloc.” 

“Now they are courting the Hispanics, because we are no longer the largest minority in the United States.” 

“They feel, ‘OK, we have the blacks in our pocket, so let’s go and court the Hispanic vote.’ That’s what everyone seems to be doing, especially the more liberal people who are running for office.”

“They’re saying we’re not as important, because we’re not that big voting bloc anymore,” she said.

Advances such as 3-D ultrasounds have changed the minds of many members of the younger generation. “I’m excited about the fact that a lot of young blacks get it,” Gardener said. “We are seeing a turn in the black community that is exciting.”

“Now we’re at a place where we really have to work together, all of us unite again to save the lives of all children.”