CDC data: African-American teen abortion rate higher than national average

According to an article in The Daily Caller, African-American teenagers have an abortion rate of over double the national average. Black teenagers (in the 15- to 19-year-old age group) have an abortion rate of 41 per 1,000. The national average is 18 per 1,000 among 15- to 19-year-olds. White teenagers have an abortion rate of 10 per 1,000 women, which means that African-American teenagers are having abortions at a rate that is four times that of white teenagers.

The situation is even more grim in New York. Sixty-seven percent of African-American teenagers’ pregnancies end in abortion in that state. New York has some of the most liberal abortion laws in the country, and one of the highest abortion rates. Forty-one percent of all babies conceived by residents of New York are aborted.

According to New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan:

The National Black Pro-Life Coalition is an organization that wants to reduce the abortion rate in the African-American population. They claim that abortion providers like Planned Parenthood deliberately place their abortion facilities in areas with large minority populations.

African-American pro-life groups also seek to raise awareness of Planned Parenthood’s racist roots. Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, has a dubious racial record that includes speaking at KKK meetings and permitting racist authors to contribute to her publication. Part of her motivation to legalize birth control was to cut down on births among the “unfit,” which included the black population.

In one of her publications, she said, “Birth control must lead ultimately to a cleaner race” (1).

She plotted to market birth control to the black community in order to lower their birth rate:

The abortion rights movement in the 1960s also sought to use African-American figureheads to push for legalization of abortion. Dr. Bernard Nathanson, who later turned pro-life, was the co-founder of the National Association to Appeal Abortion Laws (now NARAL Pro-Choice America). Nathanson quotes Laurence Lader, his co-founder of NARAL:

There is racism among abortion providers also. In 2012, members of the pro-life community were stunned when pro-lifers caught abortionist Ron Virmani on tape saying (see video below):

In just a few sentences, Virmani manages to insult the African-American community and promote two racist stereotypes about African-Americans – that they are on welfare and that they are criminals. These disgusting remarks show that he is performing abortions on African-American women in a deliberate attempt to control the African-American population.

Some years ago, another abortionist made the news for similar statements. Dr. Edward Allred owns a chain of abortion clinics called Family Planning Associates. This collection of clinics brings in millions of dollars in revenue for him. He was quoted in the San Diego Union saying the following:

Population control is too important to be stopped by some right wing pro-life types…. When a sullen black woman of 17 or 18 can decide to have a baby and get welfare and food stamps and become a burden to all of us, it’s time to stop. In parts of South Los Angeles, having babies for welfare is the only industry these people have. (4)

These racist remarks show Allred’s contempt for many of the women he aborts. One wonders whether his attitude affects the care that African-Americans receive at his clinics.

One reason why abortions are so high among African-American teenagers is because social workers and counselors sometimes push abortion as a solution to their pregnancies. According to Janet Hadley, a pro-choice feminist:

While it is impossible to know how widespread the practice of pushing African-American teens to have abortions is, the fact that a pro-choice author sees a problem is a revealing.

Feminists for Life recorded a spokesperson of NARAL making statements that indicate that this phenomenon may be more common than one might think. The American Feminist (a publication of FFL) quoted Nancy White, who was speaking on behalf of NARAL Pro-Choice America, saying:

When social workers and counselors try to steer pregnant African-American teenagers towards abortion because of their own prejudices, it is a violation of the teenagers’ rights. This may be one reason why the African-American teen abortion rate is so high. Pro-lifers need to offer support and positive counseling to young women in the African-American community, and resources to help them have their babies. Many pro-lifers are doing this already. If pro-lifers can counter the racism inherent in the abortion business, more African-American babies will be saved.

1. Margaret Sanger. Woman, Morality, and Birth Control . (New York: New York Publishing Company, 1922) 12. (http://blackquillandink.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/margaret-sanger-quotes.pdf)

2. Margaret Sanger’s December 19, 1939 letter to Dr. Clarence Gamble, 255 Adams Street, Milton, Massachusetts. Original source: Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College, North Hampton, Massachusetts. Also described in Linda Gordon’s Woman’s Body, Woman’s Right: A Social History of Birth Control in America . New York: Grossman Publishers, 1976. (http://blackquillandink.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/margaret-sanger-quotes.pdf)

3. Bernard N Nathanson, M.D. with Richard N Ostling. Aborting America (Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, 1979) 53

4. “Doctor’s Abortion Business Is Lucrative,” San Diego Union, 12 October 1980, at B-1, col. 1

5. Janet Hadley “Abortion: Between Freedom and Necessity” (Great Britain: Virago Press, 1996) p 104, 106

6. The American Feminist Summer 1994 p 14