American blacks are the most affected group by abortion, making up approximately 40% of all abortions in the US. It is a well-established historical fact that the proponents of the eugenics movement promoted abortion to eliminate those which they deemed as “undesirable” races that included the descendants of the African slaves living in the US but also included the Irish, Italians, Poles, Hispanics, Greeks, and other races in the name of “hygiene” that directly inspired the National Socialists and Communists of Europe and Asia. The history of the abortion movement in America cannot be separated from the movements supporting racism and eugenics.
Some states across the US have been taking measures to restrict abortion. In the state of Ohio, one black representative, openly called for racism and eugenics as she said that she wanted African-American babies exempt from the fetal heartbeat ban on abortion. The video begins at 51:45:
The combination of abortion, religion and politics always makes a volatile mixture.
Now toss in some accusations of racism and you’ve got the bitter stew on display last week during the emotional Statehouse debate over the “Heartbeat Bill.”
Democrats offered several amendments, such as making exceptions for pregnancies stemming from rape or incest, aimed at softening the measure signed Friday by Gov. Mike DeWine.
Perhaps the most controversial proposed change would have exempted African-American women from the ban on abortions once a fetal heartbeat can be detected.
“I consider the slave trade and how black slaves were once treated like cattle and put out to stud in order to create generations of more slaves,” Rep. Janine Boyd, D-Cleveland Heights, said in advocating the amendment during a committee hearing.
“I consider how many masters raped their slaves. I consider how many masters forced their slaves to have abortions, and I consider how many pregnant slaves self-induced abortions so that they would not contribute children they had to this slave system that was the foundational economic system of our younger country. … And so I ask you, with all of your values, to consider that and vote yes to this amendment.”
The proposal, which was defeated in the committee and later on the House floor — where it was offered by the president of the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus, Rep. Stephanie Howse, D-Cleveland — drew strong reactions from opponents of abortion rights.
“This amendment was intended to allow African-American women to abort their babies, which is outright racism and eugenics,” said Meg Wittman, executive director of Right to Life of Greater Cincinnati.
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Mark Harrington, president of Created Equal — a group that often displays large photos of aborted fetuses Downtown and on college campuses — said “to reference owning humans as a defense of dismembering them is moral myopia. If it is wrong to own humans, it is also wrong to intentionally kill them. …
“To suggest that only black babies should be killed in Ohio is shocking racism not befitting of a representative of the Ohio House.”
Heartbeat snub
Speaking of the “Heartbeat Bill,” the woman who ardently pushed for the measure for nearly a decade, Janet Porter, was not among the 30 or so invited to DeWine’s bill-signing ceremony.
Porter, former leader of Ohio Right to Life and now with a group called Faith to Action, sent flowers and balloons to state lawmakers to get attention over the years, as well as calling them out for not backing her cause — alienating many with her harsh rhetoric.
She had a falling out with the state pro-life organization, which favored an incrementalist approach to combating abortion and didn’t endorse the “Heartbeat Bill” until late last year. She attracted more fire by stridently backing lightning rod Judge Roy Moore in the 2017 special election for Senate in Alabama.
But she didn’t condemn the DeWine snub.
“I’m just happy the bill passed and moms and babies with beating hearts will be saved from the horrors of abortion,” she told The Dispatch in an email. “That’s the reason I and people like Lori Viars fought so hard for nearly a decade.”
Viars, another outspoken abortion opponent who’s with Warren County Right to Life, also was not invited. (source)