A Response to Students for L.I.F.E.
12/31/1969 - 19:00
Undergraduate/Print Journalism & Spanish
On Monday, May 2nd, I arrived at my 11:00 class to find a flyer on my chair, as I'm sure many of you did as well. Most times, flyers on my chair are of no interest to me, but this day I was shocked and disgusted by what I read, and have been thinking of it ever since. Unfortunately, the last issue of The Flip Side was released before I had a chance to submit my response, so here it is.
The flyer was one distributed by the on-campus organization at UW-Eau Claire, Students for L.I.F.E., and it sits beside me as I write this. The group begins by stating a few statistics about abortion in the United States, but then continues on to make several vicious allegations about Planned Parenthood that are blatant lies or severe twistings of reality. I will address these allegations one by one.
Students for L.I.F.E. states that Planned Parenthood is in it for the money, and takes advantage of its clients. Planned Parenthood does this by charging its clients for birth control that is intended to fail, forcing them to pay more money for an abortion. To verify this information, I consulted one of Students for L.I.F.E.'s own sources from their flyer, the Guttmacher Institute, which conducts its own research and also cites facts published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. From Guttmacher, I learned that 54% of women who have had abortions do indeed report having used a contraceptive (either the pill or condoms) during the month in which they got pregnant. What Students for L.I.F.E. doesn't say is that 76% of the pill users from that group reported that they took the pill inconsistently, and 49% of the condom users said the same.1 Nurses at Planned Parenthood instruct women on how to properly use contraceptives, and if women don't follow instructions, it cannot be said that Planned Parenthood is to blame. This allegation is a conspiracy theory meant to cause panic and anger toward an organization put into place to help women.
The second false allegation set forth in the Students for L.I.F.E. flyer is that "Abortion is about racism." The group states some facts about Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger, citing a racist remark of hers concerning illegal immigration, and that she spoke at a Ku Klux Klan meeting in 1926. These facts are true. However, they hold no weight for the current organization. Racist people exist everywhere. I'll point out here that the pro-life movement was first organized by Catholic bishops2, and Catholicism has had aspects of racism running through it since the very beginning (not to mention that Catholics make up 28% of abortions, second only to Protestants at 36%3). But on to the real issue. Students for L.I.F.E. continues its argument that abortion is about racism by saying that Planned Parenthood places their clinics in minority neighborhoods. This also is true. Another fact is that nonuse of birth control is "greatest among those who are young, poor, black, Hispanic, or lesseducated." 4 Planned Parenthood places clinics in areas of greatest need to prevent the need for abortions for minority women. Students for L.I.F.E. also says that 37% of all abortions are performed on black women. I don't know where this statistic came from because according to Guttmacher (who, I remind you, Students for L.I.F.E. claims to have used as a source), 30% of abortions are performed on black women, and 36% on white women. Guttmacher also says that 40% of white pregnancies are unintended, where 69% of black pregnancies are unintended. The reason abortion rates are higher among African-Americans isn't because Planned Parenthood is trying to wipe out their race, but because they tend to have less access to birth control. Students for L.I.F.E. claims that an "African-American genocide" is occurring because birth rates have fallen below replacement rate recently. However, the organization fails to add that the entire nation has fallen just below replacement rate, which is defined as 2.1 children to every woman. A NewsWeek article from 2006 cites demographer Nicholas Eberstadt saying that African-Americans were, in 2006, at a replacement rate of 2.0. Whites were at a replacement rate of 1.9.5 According to a 2008 report from the U.S. Census Bureau published in 2010, Hispanics and African-Americans were at the replacement rate of 2.1, and white and Asian women were below replacement rate at 1.8.6 These facts negate the African-American genocide argument.
Being pro-choice does not mean being pro-abortion. I believe in providing information, care and opportunities to those who most need it. Demonizing Planned Parenthood will not end abortion. Guttmacher states, "In 2006, publicly funded family planning services helped women avoid 1.94 million unintended pregnancies, which would likely have resulted in 860,000 unintended births and 810,000 abortions." Why would anyone want to oppose that?
I welcome comments, questions, etc. to my email at dallmabk@uwec.edu.
1 http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/fb_induced_abortion.html
2 http://books.google.com/books?id=LOzfQEP3H8AC&pg=PA195#v=onepage&q&f=false
3 http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/fb_induced_abortion.html
4 Ibid
5 Samuelson, Robert. "The End of Motherhood?" Newsweek 147.22 (2006): 39. Print.
6 http://www.census.gov/prod/2010pubs/p20-563.pdf