Michigan’s own, President Gerald Ford was the first president to federally recognize Black History Month as part of the United States Bicentennial in 1976. Originally it was celebrated as Black History week, always around February 12, Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. This annual observance serves as a time to remember the important people and events in history that Black people have contributed to.
We can't overlook the darker part of history in the United States for Black Americans. We all know about the horrific events of slavery and the civil rights movement. But there is still a great injustice in our midst, one that leads to the loss of 900 Black babies every day.
Abortion has taken more Black American lives than every other cause of death combined since 1973. Totaling over 19 million, abortion has taken more Black lives than violent crime, car accidents, cancer, heart disease and AIDS combined.
Throughout the history of abortion there has been a disparate number of black abortions happening in the United States. The Guttmacher Institute reports 926,200 abortions in the U.S. in 2014. According to the most recent CDC data, 35.6 percent of abortions are done on Black women. Only 12.6 percent of the U.S population is Black. These numbers show that Black communities are the targets for the abortion industry.
The current population in the city of Detroit is 688,701. There were an estimated 329,727 abortions done on Black women in 2014. That's almost half of the population of Detroit. The numbers only get worse when you look at Michigan. Black women make up only about 14% of Michigan's female population, yet they had 49.7% of all abortions recorded in the state in 2015. Black women had 12,925 of 27,151 total reported abortions in Michigan in 2015.
These statistics show an alarming fact, one that rarely is addressed in the public square. With almost half of the abortions in Michigan coming from Black women, we need to help educate women on their options. Abortion-on-demand is being taught to these women as a normal part of life.
The same language that was used to discriminate against them and many others in the past is used to today to discriminate against unborn babies.
The unborn are as much a part of our human family as every other person. Often the word “abortion” is never used by abortion advocates. Words and phrases like “choice” or “reproductive health” are used to sanitize the gruesome reality of abortion. Attempts to present factual information often leads to accusations of waging a “War on Women.”
This Black History Month, lets stand up for all black women and men, born and unborn.
