Most Dangerous place for a black child is in the womb?

According to an anti-choice organization’s recent efforts to hinder the operation of Planned Parenthood the most dangerous place for African American children is inside a womb.  The billboard on the left was erected in New York City’s SoHo neighborhood, a half mile away from a Planned Parenthood facility.  The organization Life Always paid for it and launched a new website thatsabortion.com latching onto the idea of abortion being an epidemic of killing little kids like the one in the picture.  On their website they stop short of calling it a genocide but saying that 25% of the next generation is being wiped out.

The organization also says Planned Parenthood targets minorities because they have more clinics in African American neighborhoods than anywhere else.

Lila Rose, an anti-choice advocate, has also targeted Planned Parenthood with supposed undercover sting operations.  Two people posed as sex traffickers inside Parenthood clinics and then claimed the organization helped the criminal enterprise.  In reality, Planned Parenthood notified the FBI of the possible sex trafficking after these visits, prior to any of tapes coming out.

“When Planned Parenthood learns of an operation that exploits young women, we vigilantly work with law enforcement authorities to uncover and stop this abhorrent activity,” said Stuart Schear, PPFA vice president for communications.  “Planned Parenthood’s top priority is the health and safety of our patients and the health and well-being of women and teens across the country, and we have been in contact with federal and local authorities to identify the persons involved in these visits.”

The assault on Planned Parenthood by anti-choice advocates has not been done in good faith.  The idea of Planned Parenthood being a drive thru abortion provider is absurd.  The truth is the legal medical procedure comprises only 3% of all services provided by the non-profit.  More than two-thirds of their work is dedicated to contraception and STD’s testing and treament.

All of these services are basic needs of men and women who make their own decisions.

A press conference was held today people affiliated with the organization and invoked Black History Month.

But Pastor Stephen Broden, a Life Always board member, told reporters at a press conference on Wednesday that “it’s hard to celebrate Black History Month” with abortion “hanging over our community.”

Rebecca Wind of the Guttmacher Institute stated:

The disparity is in part attributed to a “lack of adequate services” in many black communities, which “has resulted in more unintended pregnancies,” Wind said.

In fact 7.2 million women received contraceptive from publicly funded family planning clinics around the country in 2008 alone. In New York alone, PP sees more than 50,000 patients and provides – nearly 80,000 STD tests, 12,000 lifesaving cervical cancer screenings and 56,000 contraceptive visits.

In a prepared statement Planned Parenthood of New York City said (full statement is available in the link):

The unintended pregnancy rate in New York City is impacted by a myriad of societal factors, including poverty, access to information and education, access to birth control, and intimate partner violence, among others. Planned Parenthood knows that there are alarmingly high health disparities in New York City, and that our young people are not getting adequate access to health care and sex education and information.

It is not a race issue or some vast conspiracy of Planned Parenthood targeting African American neighborhoods.  The real matter is accessibility to proper sex education and birth control.  Furthermore, the disparities in poverty play a huge role in every day decisions as well as the intimate decision a woman makes with her doctor in regards to an unwanted pregnancy.

To play towards a particular race like Life Always has done with the billboard also purports the idea of African American women are some how incapable, either emotionally or intellectually, of making their own decisions.