2008 Woodie Awards
Bond between racism, abortion still prevalent today
MaryAnne McElroy
Issue date: 1/22/08 Section: Opinion
This week in commemoration of Martin Luther King Jr., we remember the accomplishments and heroics of the Civil Rights Movement, a movement dedicated to the equality of rights for African Americans and the struggle to fulfill the promises of our Constitution for all citizens. On Tuesday, March 22, the day after Martin Luther King Jr. Day, hundreds of thousands of supporters will gather in the Washington Mall to commemorate another historical moment in the fight for civil rights: the 1973 Supreme Court decision to legalize abortion in Roe v. Wade.
There is significance to the back-to-back placement of these days, one to honor a leader of African American civil rights, the other to fight against abortion, that cannot be ignored.
I believe that in order to fully remember and continue MLK Jr.'s message of equality for all, we must work to secure that right which is the basis of all civil rights: right to life.
Just as Americans were able to persuade themselves that it was morally acceptable to own another human being, Americans have persuaded themselves that it is acceptable to kill a human being before he or she is born. All of us can agree on the moment of death, the moment in which a person's heart stops beating and organs cease to function.
If we can all agree that life ends when the heart stops beating, why can't we agree that life is present when the heart starts beating? How can we deny that just because one is growing at an earlier stage it is not a person?
Is there a connection between racism, the cause Martin Luther King Jr. dedicated his shortened life to overcome, and abortion in the United States? Planned Parenthood is a pro-choice institution which provides information and affordable reproductive health care services such as abortions and birth control.
It was founded as the American Birth Control league by Margaret Sanger, a leader of America's movement for birth control and abortion which resulted in the legalization of the two. Margaret Sanger was an activist, a leader, and a feminist, but she was also a eugenicist and arguably a racist.
There is significance to the back-to-back placement of these days, one to honor a leader of African American civil rights, the other to fight against abortion, that cannot be ignored.
I believe that in order to fully remember and continue MLK Jr.'s message of equality for all, we must work to secure that right which is the basis of all civil rights: right to life.
Just as Americans were able to persuade themselves that it was morally acceptable to own another human being, Americans have persuaded themselves that it is acceptable to kill a human being before he or she is born. All of us can agree on the moment of death, the moment in which a person's heart stops beating and organs cease to function.
If we can all agree that life ends when the heart stops beating, why can't we agree that life is present when the heart starts beating? How can we deny that just because one is growing at an earlier stage it is not a person?
Is there a connection between racism, the cause Martin Luther King Jr. dedicated his shortened life to overcome, and abortion in the United States? Planned Parenthood is a pro-choice institution which provides information and affordable reproductive health care services such as abortions and birth control.
It was founded as the American Birth Control league by Margaret Sanger, a leader of America's movement for birth control and abortion which resulted in the legalization of the two. Margaret Sanger was an activist, a leader, and a feminist, but she was also a eugenicist and arguably a racist.
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