http://www.lifenews.com/nat1999.html




Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Millions of Americans today will honor

memory of assassinated civil rights leader Martin Luther King, but, as

do, pro-life leaders within the African American community are concerned
about the toll abortion is taking.
"Far and away the worse toll is taken in the most vulnerable community,

African American community, where black women are three times more likely

have an abortion than their white counterparts," explains Starr Parker,
president of the Coalition on Urban Renewal and Education.

http://www.lifenews.com/nat1999.html

http://www.lifenews.com/nat1999.html




Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Millions of Americans today will honor the
memory of assassinated civil rights leader Martin Luther King, but, as they
do, pro-life leaders within the African American community are concerned
about the toll abortion is taking.

http://www.lifenews.com/nat1999.html




Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Millions of Americans today will honor
the
memory of assassinated civil rights leader Martin Luther King, but, as
they
do, pro-life leaders within the African American community are concerned
about the toll abortion is taking.
"Far and away the worse toll is taken in the most vulnerable community,
the
African American community, where black women are three times more likely
to
have an abortion than their white counterparts," explains Starr Parker,
president of the Coalition on Urban Renewal and Education.

African American women make up 13.7 percent of the U.S. population of
women
of childbearing age, yet the abortion rate among Black women is three
times
higher than of white women. For every five African American women that get
pregnant three will have abortions.

Parker explains that moral principles and freedom are often at odds with
each other, as they are in the abortion debate. She says moral principles
in
opposition to slavery made Americans more free and the same can happen
with
regard to abortion.

"Americans know today that Roe v. Wade has pushed that envelope," Parker
said. "We live daily with wholesale abuse of human life that devalues
America and Americans. This loss of value and perspective has weakened us
and made us less free."

"Afro-American women have been victimized by the abortion industry for
profit," Rev. Clenard Childress the director of LEARN, a black pro-life
organization, explains. "Each day 1,452 Black infants are killed for
profit
and ... much of our current leadership are silent. Political alliances
have
caused us to 'sell out' our women and our children."

While black political leaders frequently support abortion, they're not
representative of the African American community.


When the NAACP took an official position in favor of abortion in the early
part of 2004, which it has since quietly rescinded, a poll conducted by
Black Enterprise Magazine found that 60% of African Americans disapproved
of
the decision.

Meanwhile, in an August poll sponsored by Pace University and Rock the
Vote,
54 percent of all Americans declared themselves pro-life while just 44
percent said they supported legal abortion. However, African-American
voters
took a pro-life position by a larger 59 to 42 percent margin.

Parker explains that traditionally black churches are waking up to the way
abortion has denigrated the African American community.

"Black pastors and their congregants are waking up to the fact that the
liberal agenda that they have been supporting all these years does not
liberate but denigrates, dehumanizes, and enslaves," Parker said.

However, pro-life groups and crisis pregnancy centers are reaching out to
the black community.

Janine Simpson, director of Urban Center Development for CareNet, a
network
of more than 900 pregnancy resource centers, says abortion businesses
target
black women and "an estimated 70 percent of abortion providers are in
minority neighborhoods."

But groups like CareNet are working to open centers across the country
that
provide practical help and resources for pregnant women.












--
"Honesty, Integrity, Compassion, and Decency"