Are there any NNAF or Planned Parenthood locals that have not signed on for "Reproductive Justice"? Every one I have asked has done so and has refused to refer me to any that haven't. Though Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast still has the old MLK overpopulation speech posted.
Wow, I never knew about that speech. (it was delivered by Coretta Scott King, in 1966, on MLK's behalf.) See here:
https://churchandstate.org.uk/2016/01/martin-luther-king-jr-s-take-on-family-planning-and-population/
(scroll down a bit to "Family Planning – A Special and Urgent Concern by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.")
And:
https://msmagazine.com/2021/01/18/martin-luther-king-women-abortion-planned-parenthood-abortion-coretta-scott-king/
And I'm sure MLK knew about the controversies surrounding Margaret Sanger. But honestly, were there any white women born in the 19th century who WEREN'T awfully racist by modern standards - or who were ANTI-eugenics?
Anti-abortionists try to paint abortion rights as racist,
because black embryos are likelier to be aborted...of course
that means more black women WANT and would be DENIED abortions,
and those making the denials are the racists.
Me:
THANK you.
In 2018, at Amy Alkon's now-defunct blog, I posted a link to a Margery Eagan column that mentioned the long anti-abortion standing of white supremacists. (Of course, that doesn't mean the converse is true - and yes, there are plenty of nonwhite anti-abortionists.) Title:
"Race, not abortion, was the founding issue of the religious right."
You can read the column here:
https://www.proquest.com/bostonglobe/docview/1994037324/C4B77203A7344F0APQ/1?accountid=38363
At least one person thought it was ludicrous (for Eagan) to suggest that such people would be anti-abortion - he said something like: "that would be advocating for more black babies!"
Well, first of all, since when are white supremacists in favor of women's rights in general, duh?
And opposing abortion is a great way for politicians to keep poor people poor and easier to control. So white supremacists had to choose between:
1. allowing black families to become more affluent due to family planning
2. forcing white families, even poor ones, to have more babies.
I think it's clear why #1 would not be considered acceptable - and why #2 would be considered no big deal.
Which would also help to explain why access to birth control and sterilization is likely next on the chopping block, as UMass professor Karen Lindsey sort of predicted back in 1972 - I've mentioned her here before. "Why Children?" (1980, ed. Dowrick & Grundberg) is a collection of essays by 18 women. Most of the women became mothers. Lindsey got sterilized at age 28, despite the opposition of her relatives AND her left-wing "friends." Her essay is on pages 243-249. Quote:
"Abortion and other forms of contraception still allow room for the myth of woman's destiny: 'I don't want children YET.' Sterilization says, firmly, that for the woman seeking it, the question is not birth control but birth prevention, and childless women who opt for sterilization are making it clear that they, and not society, will determine their 'roles.' "
(The rest of the essay is fascinating; she said she first got an image of how happy a childfree life could be at age 7, when she saw Betty Hutton as a trapeze artist in the movie "The Greatest Show on Earth.")
She's now almost 80.