A prominent African American pastor in Chicago issued a strong cry against abortion in the bitter cold on Sunday during the March for Life Chicago.
As the temperature neared zero degrees, the Rev. Corey Brooks, pastor of the New Beginnings Church of Chicago on the South Side, urged more than 5,000 pro-lifers in attendance to take a stand against abortion, especially in the black community. He pointed out that abortion kills more black Americans than any other cause.
The Chicago Sun-Times reports more about Brooks’ remarks:
“No longer will we stand on the sideline and let these abortions happen in our community and be silent while babies go unborn,” Brooks said during an afternoon rally at Federal Plaza. “But we are going to take a stand. And that stand starts right now.”
Brooks, the pastor of New Beginnings Church of Chicago on the South Side, made his comments before the annual March for Life Chicago, marking the anniversary of the Supreme Court’s landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that established a constitutional right to abortion. He told the crowd that, even though the black community makes up 12.6 percent of the population, it participated in 30 percent of abortions in 2008.
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“More than 16 million African-American unborn babies have died from legalized abortion,” Brooks said. “Which suggests that the current black population of 39 million would have been more than a third larger without abortion. This scourge is the leading cause of death for African-Americans.”
Brooks is one of a growing list of African American leaders who are drawing attention to the disproportionately high abortion rate in the black community. As an example, pro-lifers regularly point to a set of shocking statistics from the New York City government showing that more African American babies are aborted in the city than are born.
Abortion has claimed women’s lives, too. In 2012 in Chicago, a young African American woman died with her unborn baby after having an abortion at a Planned Parenthood. LifeNews previously reported that Tonya Reaves’ family won a $2 million settlement after she and her unborn baby died from a botched abortion.
The senseless violence of abortion is something that Dr. Alveda King, the niece of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., recently called on President Barack Obama to end. Earlier this month, King wrote an open letter to Obama, asking him to change his pro-abortion stance and start protecting children in the womb.
“As you spoke and began to tear up, I could see the compassion you have for those who are senselessly killed by guns,” King wrote. “I believe that many Americans feel the same way you do, not only for gun violence but for any type of violence.
“… I am concerned about all human lives. I write to you today because, like you and so many other Americans, I am concerned about the growing violence in America. But I am also concerned over the millions of lives lost to the violence of abortion.”
