NAACP Denounces Pro-Life Billboards Decrying Black Abortions

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Jun 20, 2011   |   6:49PM   |   Atlanta, GA

The NAACP is not happy with a new campaign sponsored by a black pro-life advocate that has new billboards placed in Atlanta, Georgia with the message “Abortion Enslaves Us” and “The 14th Amendment Made Us Members. Abortion Dismembers.”

The campaign is the brainchild of Ryan Bomberger, the head of the Radiance Foundation and the billboards were set up to celebrate Juneteenth (June 19th) and the liberation of black Americans from the shackles of slavery. They are meant to “expose the epidemic of abortion.”

“The campaign invokes the Reconstruction Amendments and the abortion industry’s dependence upon certain persons being classified as property,” Bomberger explains. “The landmark Roe v. Wade decision relied upon the perversion of the 14th Amendment, which finally ascribed full humanity to African-Americans, to justify stripping humanity from another group of individuals — the unborn.”

“In NYC, where Planned Parenthood is headquartered, this dehumanization results in the abortion of 60% of all black pregnancies. Here in Georgia, nearly 60% of all abortions are on African-Americans,” Bomberger continued.

But, in an interview with the liberal Huffington Post, Hilary Shelton, director of the Washington bureau of the NAACP, condemned the billboards.

“Comparing abortion to slavery certainly raises major concerns,” he said. “Women are not forced to have abortions the way they were in servitude. Slavery was about not having the right to make any decisions. Women were actually bred to produce children for the purposes of profit. This is so far removed from that, that if it weren’t such a serious issue, it would almost be laughable.”

Bomberger responded saying the campaign “must be doing something right” if the NAACP is attacking it.

The NAACP is not new to controversy when it comes to abortion and, in April, NAACP officials rushed to defend the nation’s largest abortion business after videos were released showing Planned Parenthood staffers helping alleged sex trafficking ring operators. A collection of 27 organizations, including the civil rights group, sent a letter to Congress asking lawmakers to resist the urge to support a bill sponsored by Congressman Mike Pence of Indiana to cut the millions in taxpayer funding the Planned Parenthood abortion business receives through the federal family planning program.

The NAACP passed a 2004 resolution voicing support for “equal access to abortion” and urging its members to participate in a pro-abortion rally in Washington. Then, in 2007, the NAACP, for the second time in four years, blocked a proposed resolution expressing opposition to abortion.

The Georgia chapter of the NAACP came under fire in 2010 for withdrawing its support for a bill advancing in the Georgia state legislature that would ban abortions done specifically because the child is African-American.

The decision drew criticism from Star Parker, a nationally syndicated pro-life black columnist.

“Why would a bill that criminalizes abortion motivated by race not have the support of the NAACP? Or, even more perplexing, why would the NAACP endorse such a bill and then rescind its endorsement?” she asked.

“After the bill moved to the House for passage, suddenly Edward DuBose, president of the Georgia NAACP, had a change of heart. In a statement withdrawing NAACP’s support for the bill, DuBose claimed they didn’t “fully understand” it when they endorsed it,” she added. “It’s not news that an abortion holocaust is taking place in black America. Blacks, about 12 percent of our population, account for almost 40% of the abortions that are performed nationwide each year.”