The Black Panthers Were Right

"A recent report by the Guttmacher Institute shows that black women now have abortions at five times the rate of white women," Tom Bethell writes in The American Spectator.

"As an African American, I am saddened by evidence that black women continue to be targeted by the abortion industry," said Bishop Martin Holley. "The loss of any child from abortion is a tragedy, but we must ask: Why are minority children being aborted at such disproportionate rates?"

An answer of sorts was given years ago by the Black Panthers, a militant group (since defunct), who were vehemently opposed to abortion. When New York State legalized abortion in 1970, the Panthers warned that the "oppressive ruling class" would use the new law to unleash a black "holocaust." ...

Bishop Holley says that abortion is the leading cause of death for blacks, with 13 million abortions so far. That is one-third of the present African-American population. With most Planned Parenthood clinics concentrated in inner cities, it is reasonable for Bishop Holley to believe that blacks are being targeted.

How things have changed. In the 1960s, activists forced the closing of a Planned Parenthood clinic in a black Pittsburgh neighborhood and threatened riots if it were reopened. In Cleveland, a family planning clinic was firebombed and several others were closed in response to threats.

Are blacks really being targeted? Well, Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger was a eugenicist who advocated the sterilization of what she considered to be "genetically inferior races." Of course, she didn't want "the word to get out that we want to exterminate the Negro population," so she enlisted black ministers to help "straighten out that idea if it occurs to any of their more rebellious members." I'm sure Sanger would be pleased to know that even today you can make a donation to the Planned Parenthood office in Tulsa and target your gift toward the killing of a black baby: