In several posts over the years I have painted a critical (and, to me, depressing) picture of a parade of liberal Catholic politicians struggling to reconcile the pro-life dictates of their faith with the pro-choice demands of their party. These attempts to reconcile the irreconcilable were uniformly unsuccessful, sometimes pathetically so, and thus it is not too much to say — and I have either said it or strongly implied it — that in each case these politicians remained loyal acolytes of their Church … while changing churches from Catholic to Democrat.
Now the NAACP has gone even farther down that same politics-trumping-principle road.
Last February the New York Times ran an article pointing with shock and awe to Georgia Right to Life, very conscious of “the disproportionately high number of black women who undergo abortions,” reaching out to blacks. The article noted that
that black women get almost 40 percent of the country’s abortions, even though blacks make up only 13 percent of the population. Nearly 40 percent of black pregnancies end in induced abortion, a rate far higher than for white or Hispanic women.
In Georgia, the racial disparity in abortions is even greater: in 2007, blacks received 56% of all abortions. (Talk about “overrepresentation?!) In response, last winter Georgia Right to Life put up billboards all over the state claiming that black children are an “endangered species, ” and SB 529 was introduced, a bill that made it a criminal offense to perform an abortion
(2) With the intent to prevent an unborn child from being born based upon the race, color, or gender of the unborn child or the race or color of either parent of that unborn child;
(3) With the actual knowledge that the pregnant woman is seeking the abortion with the intent to prevent an unborn child from being born based upon the race, color, or gender of the unborn child or the race or color of either parent of that unborn child;.
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the Georgia NAACP endorsed the bill, but now the NAACP has withdrawn its support. Edward DuBose, chapter president, issued a statement explaining the NAACP reversal:
Earlier this month, the Georgia NAACP submitted a letter to support Senate Bill 529. We now fully understand the intention of this legislation and wish to retract our support for it.
At the time, we were of the understanding that this bill would work to benefit the women in our community. However, after many conversations with membership and constituents, we now realize that this is nothing more than using women’s health as a political tool.
Women of color in Georgia need more than divisive messages and deserve better access to health care.
I’m not sure that there actually were any abortions performed with a race-based intent, and it’s also not clear if an abortionist who performed a “disproportionate” number of black abortions could be found guilty of a civil rights violation under a “disparate impact” standard. But I also don’t see how prohibiting racially motivated abortions is “a divisive message.”
Of course, these days the NAACP, like the liberal Catholic politicians mentioned above, and for similar reasons, regards any message that runs counter to Democratic orthodoxy as “divisive.”
