Soon after the jury entered its verdict in the Trayvon Martin murder case in Florida, the NAACP posted an online petition, asking the DOJ to charge George Zimmerman with federal crimes. They said they did this to vindicate “the most fundamental of civil rights — the right to life.”
The NAACP is correct that the right to life is the “most fundamental” of our rights. Without it, the right to free speech, free exercise of religion, racial equality, or any other civil right is a meaningless abstraction. And this is exactly why the NAACP should drop its scandalous lawsuit against Arizona’s Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act.
The Arizona law, in effect since 2011, prohibits abortionists from knowingly performing an abortion sought or coerced because of the pre-born child’s gender or race. The NAACP’s Maricopa County branch filed its suit against this law in May 2013, bizarrely claiming that a law that prohibited the intentional killing of a pre-born child because of the child’s race (or gender) is itself racist.
The fact is that abortion and racism have long found common cause. Long before Roe v. Wade, abortion was advertised as a means of getting rid of certain classes of people and certain races. And abortion as a means of eliminating “unwanted” girls is a common practice around the globe.
American eugenicists, including Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger, often pointed to African-Americans as examples of an “unfit” race and to the poor as “human weeds” whose procreation should be limited. Sanger even found support for her efforts among the Ku Klux Klan — she spoke to the group on numerous occasions.
Since Roe, 15 million unborn African-Americans have had their lives ended by abortion. Abortion is the leading cause of death for African-Americans. And Planned Parenthood and other abortionists deliberately locate their clinics disproportionately in African-American communities, profiting from this catastrophe.
Abortion based on gender — or sex-selection — is well-known and documented in many communities. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has opposed sex-selection abortions, saying it “ultimately support[s] sexist practices.” Yet undercover videos show that Arizona abortionists are willing to perform abortions because of the pre-born child’s gender, irrevocably violating her fundamental right to life because she is female.
CLICK LIKE IF YOU’RE PRO-LIFE!
Rather than standing up for the child’s right to life — the most fundamental of civil rights — or even just standing against the racist or sexist termination of the fundamental right to life, the NAACP has chosen to throw in its lot with the most extreme fringe of the pro-abortion lobby, defending racist and sexist abortions. And they have the gall to claim that those defending pre-born lives are the ones who are racially insensitive.
The right to life is fundamental regardless of the race, gender, or gestational age of the human being at issue. What the NAACP needs to decide is whether it is actually interested in defending this fundamental right — particularly when that right is violated for reasons of race or gender — or whether it is more important to the NAACP to be seen as a loyal foot soldier of the extreme left.
If the NAACP believes what it says, it should dismiss its complaint against Arizona’s Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act and take a stand against the victimization of racial minorities and women by abortion businesses.
LifeNews Note: Casey Mattox is an attorney with Alliance Defending Freedom.
