Martin Luther King, Jr’s Niece Reflects on Abortion at Birmingham Event

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Aug 23, 2007   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Martin Luther King, Jr’s Niece Reflects on Abortion at Birmingham Event Email this article
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
August 23,
2007

Birmingham, AL (LifeNews.com) — Dr. Alveda King, the niece of legendary civil rights advocate Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., participated in the unveiling of historic markers Sunday at the church and parsonage of her late father, the Rev. A. D. Williams King. She said later the event caused her to reflect on King’s life and the status of abortion in America.

The Birmingham, Alabama, church was an integral part of the civil rights movement in the early 1960s, having been the site of several mass meetings.

"My father was pastor of the First Baptist Church of Ensley from 1961 to 1965, when he and my uncle fought in the struggle to make equality of opportunity real for all Americans," Alveda King said.

"Even after my family’s home at the parsonage was bombed, Daddy was unswerving in his dedication to God and to the cause of justice," King added. "While the ceremonies Sunday marked a historic period from our past, it reminded me of another kind of struggle for survival African Americans face today."

As King explained, that struggle has to do with abortion and how black Americans are becoming victims of abortion at higher rates than their white counterparts.

"In the last forty-plus years, 15 million black people have been denied their most basic civil right, the right to life," King noticed.

"Roughly one quarter of the black population is now missing," she reflected. "This hasn’t happened because of lynch mobs, but because of abortionists who plant their killing centers in minority neighborhoods and prey upon women who think they have no hope."

King said abortion is a "great irony" because it has decimated the African-American population in ways the Klu Klux Klan never could.

"It’s time that we remember the sacrifices of men like my father and my uncle who worked and died so that our children could live," King concluded. "It’s time to stop killing the future and keep their dream alive."