Great controversy is being generated by recent billboard ads in major U.S. cities like Atlanta and Austin, Texas. They feature an image of an African American child and the words, “The most dangerous place for an African American is in the womb.” As a Christian and an African American, I am very delighted that our community has finally begun to wake up and do something about the devastating effects of abortion.

High abortion rate for African Americans

I have actually participated in at least two marches in Washington, D.C., for the pro-life cause, and every time I was disappointed at the very low African American turnout. After learning about the fact that we as a people, who are about 12.8 percent of the American population, abort more than double our population percentage, it became even more disturbing to me that our voices were distinctly minimal on this important life issue. So I jumped at the chance to praise this effort and write this story after learning about this ad campaign.

These ads are sponsored by Heroic Media, an Austin-based non-profit organization whose stated goal is to reduce abortion “by creating a culture of life through television, billboard and Internet advertising which connects women in crisis with life-affirming pregnancy centers.” Working with Heroic Media are several African American pastors who have been at the forefront of the pro-life movement in our community, Rev. Clenard Howard Childress Jr. of Black Genocide and Rev. Stephen Broden of That’s Abortion along with workers from the Black Pro-life Movement.

Ad campaign raises awareness of issue

The ads were designed to raise awareness of the fact that abortion is the number one cause of death for African Americans, beating out AIDS, heart disease, cancer, diabetes and violent crime combined. This is an alarming statistic. But even more alarming is the fact that most of these abortions are supported by the efforts of Planned Parenthood, and that the vast majority of abortion clinics are strategically placed disproportionately in black and minority neighborhoods.

In the recently released documentary, “Maafa 21: Black Genocide in 21st Century America,” the creators chronicle and document the fact that the founder of Planned Parenthood, Margaret Sanger, appears to have been racist and part of a eugenics movement determined to eliminate the weak and “undesirable.” The documentary, which can be viewed in parts on YouTube, also demonstrated racist and eugenics intent throughout the organization long after Sanger’s death.

Planned Parenthood targeting blacks for abortions

A large contingent of African American pastors, ministers and pro-life advocates, including Alveda King, the niece of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., gathered together in 2008 at the NAACP convention to protest the funding of Planned Parenthood. This protest came in the wake of audio evidence proving that even today, Planned Parenthood will accept donations from people to help blacks get abortions, even when the person’s motive for the donation was overtly racist.

Planned Parenthood’s response was to deny that the employees caught accepting racist donations were reflecting the organization’s official position. But the historical facts revealed in “Maafa 21” show that at the very least we should be suspicious of the organization in light of its checkered past. Even the pro-choice advocate, Julianne Malveaux, in an article for Women’s eNews titled, “Sanger’s Legacy Is Reproductive Freedom and Racism,” wrote this about Sanger’s legacy: “I see Sanger as a tarnished heroine whose embrace of the eugenics movement showed racial insensitivity, at best.”

Planned Parenthood responds to billboards

In the wake of this new ad campaign for life, Planned Parenthood went on record stating that, “Planned Parenthood’s mission is to provide preventive, affordable health care to everyone in the community…This expensive billboard campaign generates media attention but unfortunately does nothing to provide critically needed health care and education in the Austin community.”

But excuse me, Planned Parenthood, the last thing abortion can be considered is health care. What we need are adoption funding and services, affordable daycare facilities, and alternatives to the taking of unborn, innocent life, not euphemistic rhetoric about “health care.” Sorry, we’re not buying that line anymore.