Maryland Officials Push For Attacks on Urban Pregnancy Centers

The fight against urban pregnancy centers started in 2008 when NARAL, the nation’s leading abortion advocate, launched their “Urban Initiative” to influence city leaders to place restrictions and heavy fines on pregnancy centers serving mostly black and Latina women.  These centers have a primary focus, to serve women and their unborn children. Urban PRCs generally provide free ultrasounds, free pregnancy tests and material assistance.

Most recently courts have found the restrictions on these centers are unconstitutional.

“In a pair of 2-1 decisions, a panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with the centers that the Baltimore city and Montgomery County ordinances violated their free-speech rights”, according to the Associated Press.

This decision, however, did not satisfy Montgomery County Council President Roger Berliner of Bethesda, who said the county will appeal the panel’s decision to the “en banc” or the full 4th circuit court for reconsideration.

With the highest rates of abortion coming from both black and Latino communities, the obvious need is to support existing centers and open new ones.  Instead Montgomery County seeks to impose futher regulations on them in order to hinder their services. This tactic from abortion advocates is to protect their financial interest. Every time a woman choses life after visiting a pregnancy center, an abortionist loses several hundred dollars.

Currently, a vast majority of abortion providers are located in metropolitan areas. Many of them are in predominantly minority-populated communities, thereby contributing greatly to the disproportionate impact of abortion on minorities. Statistics show that African American and Latina women account for only 27% of the female population in the U.S., yet they undergo 59% of all abortions. In many urban communities, abortion providers outnumber pregnancy centers by a ratio of five to one. Care Net is working on expanding access to the important resources provided by pregnancy centers so that women in urban areas are empowered to carry their pregnancies to term.

An Equally Tragic Death in Chicago

There is something obscene about a child dying before their parent. I cannot imagine the pain, the anguish of losing a child. America is in mourning because of the tragedy in Aurora, Colorado this past weekend. My heart hurts with all the families impacted by the actions of that mad man. There was an equally tragic death in Chicago this past weekend. But very few will hear about it. Very few will talk about it because it encroaches on the idol of abortion and the so -called woman’s right of choice that has captivated the nation since 1973.

Abortion, the most unregulated surgical procedure in the nation has claimed another life – that of Tonya Reaves. Remember her name.  A young 24 year old daughter, sister, and mother, she is the latest victim to die at the hands of Planned Parenthood and their abortionists. For years organizations like Planned Parenthood and the National Abortion Federation have told us that “abortion is one of the safest medical procedures provided in the United States and Canada today”. Really? I think Tonya’s family would beg to differ with that statement. Their daughter, sister, mother who left home on Friday to get that safe medical procedure, did not come back to her family and Instead she was transported to a local hospital where she died as a result of “a hemorrhage, with a cervical dilation and evacuation, as well as an intrauterine pregnancy as contributing causes”.  What was Planned Parenthood at 18 S. Michigan Av in Chicago’s response? “We were shocked and saddened upon learning of a tragic development at a nearby hospital” they said– as if the injury that sent her to that nearby hospital had no bearing on them and their facility.

At a time when Planned Parenthood is working to convince the black community that black women are experiencing a lack of access to quality reproductive health care and therefore need more of their facilities in urban areas, I  find it particularly interesting that Planned Parenthood did not openly discuss this disparity in reproductive healthcare:  the numbers of young black women that have lost their lives at the hands of negligent abortionists. Nor do they discuss the numbers of young black women who have lost their fertility because of the "safe" abortion in their reproductive health care dens.  

Most abortionists in America are not operating under reasonable standards of medical care for ambulatory medical centers.  Abortionists more times than we know, perforate the bowels or intestines of the woman as was the case when a teen was injured by Nicola Riley who Baltimore ruled a danger to society. They over medicate patients more than we know as was the case in Philadelphia whenKarnamay Mongar  was given too much Demerol and died. Some do not have standard equipment to monitor the patient as was the case when Laura Hope Smith lost her life at the hands of Rapin Osathanondh, in Massachusetts. The failure to take a complete and accurate medical history is an issue in the case of a young woman from Johnson City, TN who had a late term abortion performed by Tyrone Malloy in Atlanta, GA and hemorrhaged to death. She had a history of sickle cell anemia, a factor that should have made her ineligible for the unmonitored abortion.

These are but a few of the injuries that have occurred across the United States. Using 1999 data, the Guttmacher Institute (the research arm of Planned Parenthood), in their 2011 Facts on Induced Abortion in the United States tell us that “The risk of abortion complications is minimal: Fewer than 0.3% of abortion patients experience a complication that requires hospitalization”. First let us realize this is 1999 data and we are some thirteen years away from that study. But let us suppose this number is accurate. That translates into more than three thousand women each year that have been harmed at the abortionist hand. And we have no idea how many of them recovered from their injury. Some did not. Some were never able to have children because the damage was so great it result in a hysterectomy or permanent sterilization.

Later in that same document, they provide information that I think the average woman does not know:  “The risk of death associated with abortion increases with the length of pregnancy, from one death for every one million abortions at or before eight weeks to one per 29,000 at 16–20 weeks—and one per 11,000 at 21 or more weeks” and I doubt the abortionist informs her of this potentially life impacting fact before he does the procedure. According to the Guttmacher Institute about nineteen percent of the approximately 1.2 million abortions each year are performed on women who are sixteen or more weeks pregnant. Each year then we can expect seven to eight deaths of the mother.  I can only wonder if this information is shared with the mother before the procedure. Oh, I am sure they will pull out their consent forms and tell us they discussed it with the patient, because they will go to any length to cover up their negligence and lack of reasonable care.  

In reality we have no way of measuring the accuracy of Guttmacher’s numbers because the industry is unregulated and as such are not required to keep or share accurate records. I just finished reading The Scarlett Lady, Confessions of a Successful Abortionist by Carol Everett. She starts the book showcasing her facilities as the Neiman-Marcus of the industry. She ends the book describing the disgrace into which they had fallen - actually performing the abortion procedure on women who were not pregnant. She goes on to describe a death and several botched abortions that were covered up and swept away by cooperating hospitals and doctors.

The patient in Chicago died on Friday. On Saturday we learned that an autopsy had already been completed and her death was ruled an accident. I can only pray that her family seeks a real autopsy that will reveal what I suspect is a lack of reasonable medical care on the part of Planned Parenthood. I pray for comfort for her family as they wrestle to reconcile what happened. I pray they will not be swayed by the dollars that Planned Parenthood may try to throw at them to make this go away. I pray justice will be had for Tonya so that no more of our daughters, sisters and mothers have to die on the altar of substandard medical practices most abortionists adhere to.  Let us join together and demand abortionists be held be held accountable when they take a life or reproductively maim another woman.

An Open Letter to African Americans - Can We Have the Conversation?

Every day, all across America, more than 1500 black babies die in the abortion chambers that dot urban areas where blacks reside. In state after state, the numbers of abortions performed on black women are 2, 3, sometimes even 4 times the number of blacks in the population in that state. In New York City more black babies are aborted than are born alive, in 2009 for every 1,000 black babies born, 1489 were aborted.

Recent news out of states like Delaware, Pennsylvania, and Louisiana are horrifying. We are learning that many abortionists are little more than butchers, flagrantly disregarding state and federal laws that establish medical standards of care. These abortion dens do not have medical equipment available to take blood pressure, dispense oxygen or any other lifesaving procedures for those women that are over medicated or reproductively maimed when the abortionist punctures their womb, or pulls out their intestines. Some of these butchers are not even licensed to practice medicine (http://bit.ly/dX0rBM, http://bit.ly/fWUbJX, http://bit.ly/dOcGWe)!

Organizations such as the National Abortion Federation and Planned Parenthood are reported to inspect many of these clinics but there is no evidence they have warned one woman not to seek services from these abortionists. Claiming that abortion is one of the "safest medical procedures provided in the United States", these organizations cover up the horrific conditions of clinics all across America. They rabidly promote unfettered abortion, despite reports of women dying in these abortuaries (http://bit.ly/g0PHpN, http://nydn.us/cwVDyB, http://bit.ly/dPWgId), and women being maimed through careless and negligent medical procedures (http://bit.ly/bt2k7n, http://bit.ly/fEwUX8, http://bit.ly/gGDgBE).

Undercover investigations of Planned Parenthood demonstrate a willingness on their part to take money to abort black children (http://bit.ly/dYg6sX). Other videos show their proclivity to cover up sexual abuse of minors (http://bit.ly/fqv1kU) and to counsel sex traffickers on avoiding state and federal laws (http://liveaction.org/). There are reports that sixty four percent of all abortions are coerced (http://bit.ly/fub9A9).

So who is it that is most harmed by abortion? The numbers do not lie. Black women all over the nation are dying from abortion, are being reproductively maimed from abortion, and are being coerced into abortion at greater rates than their Latina, Asian or Caucasian counterparts. Abortions hurts women, and black women are leading in the number of injuries. Abortion has been shrouded in women's rights for more than thirty nine years and now, the industry is attempting to connect abortion to civil rights. Pro-abortion forces have characterized abortion as the friend of the black woman, skillfully weaving stories of reproductive rights and access to reproductive health care that all point to the life of the child ending in abortion. To them truth is of no consequence as long as abortion is not regulated and black women continue to "choose" to terminate the lives of their children.

Pro-abortion forces are now turning their sights toward stopping any assistance that might convince the woman to keep her child. They have launched an urban initiative targeting pregnancy centers, attacking them through City Council legislation that would require centers to take steps that even abortion providers do not have to meet. Reports are that the pro-abortion forces are seeking to introduce similar legislation all around the country, demonstrating NARAL's and Planned Parenthood's determination to keep "choice" synonymous with abortion. It is these same pregnancy centers that serve mostly black and brown women, providing free services that sometimes includes clothing, car seats, high chairs and other resources needed to help with a live child.

Sisters, let's talk about this. Planned Parenthood Founder Margaret Sanger's depopulation plan that she called the Negro Project is succeeding. Only we can stop it. 

The Negro Project 2.0 Part 3

There are two very strange things about the urban initiative NARAL is touting with such pride. First, as of this writing, an astonishing 62% of black pregnancies in New York City are aborted; clearly black women have access to abortion. Yet, NARAL seems deeply concerned that the 38% of pregnant black women who carried their babies to term may have visited a pregnancy help center.

Second, as NARAL tries to increase restrictions on pregnancy help centers, they are simultaneously lobbying for relaxed regulation on abortion clinics Such proposals include allowing non-physicians to perform surgical abortions and making it impossible to sue an abortion provider for malpractice, even if the mother dies during the procedure.

If they are truly concerned with women getting the best healthcare, why wouldn’t they want to hold abortion providers accountable for malpractice and ensure that surgical procedures where being performed by licensed physicians? Clearly, we are witnessing The Negro Project 2.0.

In theory, almost everyone agrees that abortion is not a good thing. Some abortion advocates will even state the desire to reduce the number of abortions.  We are often told that the only way to reduce abortion is to increase the availability of contraception; in the same way we were told that the availability of abortion was the only way to reduce out-of -wedlock births. Yet, we have more birth control today than we did forty years ago, and we have more abortions and more out-of-wedlock births than we did then.

The sad truth is that there are powerful organizations at work in America who do not want to see abortions reduced, particularly among black Americans. They do not believe that all babies are blessings, and they strategically seek out pregnant black women and tell them that the babies they carry will ruin their lives. Abortion not only brings hundreds of millions of dollars to abortion providers nationwide, but it keeps alive Sanger’s view that childbearing should be reserved primarily for the middle and upper classes.

In fact there is right now in this country a waiting list of families ready to adopt infants, and specifically black infants. There is no reason that any woman should fear that a baby she is unprepared to care for will not end up in a loving family that has been waiting, hoping and praying for her child.

 It is my prayer that our women will find the help and support they need through caring pregnancy centers and communities that love and support them.  We must also stand with and support the growing number of pastors, bishops, doctors, lawyers, coaches and educators who are committed to turning the tide of high abortion rates in the inner cities. Unlike Sanger’s Negro leaders, these men and women are helping to create a culture of life in which each child is welcomed regardless of race or circumstance.

The Negro Project 2.0 - Part 2

On December 10, 1939, Sanger wrote of the Negro Project to Clarence Gamble:  millionaire heir to Proctor and Gamble and philanthropist in the birth control movement” The minister’s work is also important and he should be trained, perhaps by the Federation as to our ideals and the goal that we hope to reach. We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population, and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members.”

In fact, the Negro Project sought to reproduce nationwide what Sanger had begun when she established one of her first clinics in Harlem nine years earlier. She staffed the facility with a black physician and a black social worker and gathered the support of leaders from the Abyssinian Baptist Church, the Urban League and black community leaders like W. E. B. Du Bois.

While few today would overtly espouse such beliefs, the overwhelming majority of abortion clinics still stand in minority neighborhoods. A study published by the Life Issues Institute revealed that of162 Planned Parenthood facilities, 62.5% were located in black neighborhoods.

Nowhere is Sanger’s legacy more apparent today than in the disproportionate attention abortion advocates continue to pay to minority urban areas. NARAL Pro-Choice New York, a chapter of the nation’s leading abortion-rights organization, is touting their Urban Initiative, which was launched in the fall of 2008 by the National Institute of Reproductive Health.

Regrettably, one of the goals of this strategic, nationally coordinated initiative is to work with urban leaders, mostly elected officials, to scrutinize and increasingly regulate pregnancy centers in urban areas. Since 2008, NARAL has passed anti-pregnancy center legislation in the following urban areas: Baltimore and Montgomery County (Maryland), New York City and Austin, Texas. Legislation may also soon be introduced in San Francisco and in the state of Michigan.

Pregnancy centers, also called pregnancy help centers, provide free pregnancy testing, ultrasounds, pre-natal nutrition classes, counseling, and referrals to social service agencies for women facing unplanned pregnancies. Nine out of ten pregnant women who visit a Care Net pregnancy center will decide to carry their pregnancy to term.* If they feel unable to care for the child themselves, they are connected with adoption services. For those who choose to abort, such centers provide post-abortive recovery programs for those who desire it.