Lawrenceville, GA – In 2008, blacks made up 30% of the population but over 57% of the abortions in Georgia. Today national black leaders gathered at the Georgia State Capitol to join a bipartisan group of black and white Georgia legislators to call for an end to the disproportionate levels of abortion in the black community in Georgia.
“Black children are aborted at three times the rate of all other populations. Georgia leads the country in the number of reported abortions performed on black women, 18,901 in 2008 alone,” Catherine Davis, Director of Minority Outreach for Georgia Right to Life reported.
Dr. Johnny Hunter, President of LEARN noted, “The civil rights activists did not fight to make lynching safe, legal, and rare. They ended it. We must fight to end the ugliest form of racism: abortion.”
Hunter also noted, “More black children die every 4 days from abortion, than the Klu Klux Klan killed in 144 years.”
Dr. La Verne Tolbert, former board member of Planned Parenthood stated, “Abortions increase where clinics are located and where are those clinics located? Ninety-four percent of the clinics are located in urban areas where blacks reside. In my own neighborhood which is an African American neighborhood in California, there are three abortion clinics strategically located all in the same area.”
On Tuesday, Representative Barry Loudermilk introduced bipartisan legislation that targets this very issue. The Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act, HB 1155, makes it illegal to knowingly perform, solicit or accept funding for either race- or sex-selection abortions. This bill is based upon existing federal legislation in the 111th US Congress.
“In Georgia, you cannot fire or hire a person based upon their race or gender. If discrimination is wrong in the workplace and in schools, those same standards should be applied to who enters this life and who doesn’t. No child should be kept from entering this world based upon their race, color, or sex,” said Representative Loudermilk
Dr. Johnny Hunter stated, “All the civil rights gained in education, voting, and equal job opportunities mean nothing to a dead black child.”
Catherine Davis noted, “HB 1155 will not victimize or harm women, but will hold accountable those who would perform, solicit, or coerce an abortion because of the race, color, or sex of the child. We must stop the exploitation of these women and their children.”
Dr. Alveda King, niece of Martin Luther King Jr. commented, “I commend Rep. Loudermilk and the other legislators for ending this last bastion of racism. Abortion is the civil rights issue of the 21st Century.”
GRTL's E-News 
Congratulatons on your billboards! Pro-choice isn’t about choice at all. It’s about grabbing power and forcing infanticide on a nation that doesn’t want it. Tragically, low income and minority women end up being exploited and their unborn babies are lost to us all. Thank you for having the courage to speak the TRUTH!
ENCOURAGING your getting the word out!!All too long coming!!!! Abortion is just plain wrong, no matter the ethnicity, but Blacks need to WAKE UP!!!
I hope we have that here in Hampton Roads.
Are you concerned with these children once they are born?
@Marla
Thank you for your question.
We are concerned with these children once they are born. We have since 2000 been working to give women in Georgia options in their pregnancy. We have sponsored a media campaign which gives women a number 1-800-395-HELP where they can talk to a local counselor and find out what resources are available to them.
Once they talk with the counselor, they are put in touch with a local pregnancy resource center that assists the mother and family throughout the pregnancy and beyond. Such resources include diapers, formula, clothing, job placement, education assistance, parenting classes, and beyond. If you ever know of a woman who is pregnant and needs help, we encourage you to refer her to the Optionline 1-800-395-4357.
If I am reading this correctly, this bill is not a move to end abortion, but a move to eliminate racial or gender motivations for abortion. Abortion is still ethical and legal as long as you are not motivated by racism or gender bias?
@Gaylan abortion is never, ethical or moral. As an organization, we are still fighting to not just end abortion but see every child seen as a person from the earliest biological beginning until natural death.
This bill seeks to stop the discrimination that Planned Parenthood and other abortion clinics have done for over 37 years.
In Georgia 59% of the abortions are done on the black community in Georgia.
I encourage you to check out http://www.toomanyaborted.com and see the history behind abortion and it’s discriminatory practices.
If you have more questions, you can call the office 770-339-6880.
Understood. My question was a rhetorical one, and was looking for a stronger stand against abortion in general, without that stance having to be argued from the point of racism. But I can see your point–abortion is immoral, and that immorality is even more blatant when it is directed to an already oppressed sector of the society.
Thank you so much for all you are doing. My heart goes out whenever I think of what is happening.