Michigan Abortions Target African-American Women, State Report Says

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Sep 19, 2004   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Michigan Abortions Target African-American Women, State Report Says Email this article
Printer friendly page

by Paul Nowak
LifeNews.com Editor
September 19, 2004

Detroit, MI (LifeNews.com) — According to a new report based on Michigan Department of Community Health data, African-American women in the sate have three times as many abortions of women of other ethnic groups.

This year was the first that the Department of Community Health released abortion statistics broken down by the ethnicity of the mother. African-American women make up 16 percent of the state’s women, but obtained 38 percent of the abortions performed in the state last year.

African-American women were three times as likely to have an abortion compared to other women in the state, receiving 10,911 abortions last year. In contrast, 1,283 Michiganders died in traffic accidents the same year.

Right to Life of Michigan cited economic pressures as a possible reason for the rise of abortions and the striking disparity between the abortion statistics of blacks and other ethnic groups.

To help respond to the phenomenon, Right to Life of Michigan will open its newest center in Detroit, called the Destination Life Center,

"This office will give Right to Life of Michigan the opportunity to help women in need," Pam Sherstad of Right to Life of Michigan told LifeNews.com. "I’m glad Detroit is beginning to talk about the issue of abortion. A need must be identified before it can be addressed."

Recently a remix of a chart-topping single by Usher drew criticism by graphically describing a man’s plan to force his girlfriend to miscarry if she refuses to get an abortion.

Joe Budden, who made the remix entitled "Confessions Part II," has defended his version of the song.

Day Gardner, director of Black Americans for Life, an African-American pro-life group, says the lyrics are "demeaning and outright violent toward both women and unborn children."

"It is appalling to suggest that a man attack a woman to cause the death of her unborn child," Gardner said. "As women and as mothers, we simply cannot allow ourselves or our unborn children to be treated as objects of such abuse."

Meanwhile, a billboard identifying abortion as the number one killer of African-Americans was the subject of concern for an anti-racism group. The billboards face an abortion business in Flint, Michigan, and provide a number for women in crisis pregnancies to call for help.

Related web sites:
Right to Life of Michigan – https://www.rtl.org