Op-Ed: If You Care About Black Lives—End Abortion

In the midst of all the passion, division, and activism, there should be at least one central premise that every American can agree on—that life matters. But increasingly the truth is becoming clear that only certain lives matter. Specifically speaking, leftist activist group “Black Lives Matter” says one thing but then works to destroy the lives of thousands of black people.

For example, on the BLM “What we Believe” page they claim to be: 

Guided by the fact that all Black lives matter, regardless of actual or perceived sexual identity, gender identity, gender expression, economic status, ability, disability, religious beliefs or disbeliefs, immigration status, or location (emphasis added). 

In every location, that is, except the womb. 

Since nearly the beginning of the organization, BLM has associated themselves with anti-life groups, while in the same breath ironically declaring that, “our lives are at stake.” One co-founders of BLM explained that, “we certainly understand that BLM and reproductive justice go hand in hand.” 

Calling abortion “reproductive justice” cannot hide the fact that for every successful abortion there is a victim whose life apparently didn’t matter enough. Such double-speak only attempts to deflect the attention away from the apparent ideological hypocrisy rampant in the organization. 

Overall in America, there were 862,000 babies killed by abortion in 2017, which means an average of 2,362 a day. Statistically, in 2016 (the most recent year for which data exists), 38% of abortions were by black women. Thus, an estimated 898 black babies die every single day, and as many as 327,560 per year. 

To expand our inquiry even further, there has been over 60,000,000 abortions since Roe v. Wade in 1973. Just how many millions of black children didn’t matter? Certainly more than the total number of slaves ever brought from Africa. It should, therefore, come as no surprise that in New York a higher percentage of black babies are aborted than born. This is an odd kind of justice.

Paradoxically, the main group claiming to champion black lives supports those institutions that kill more black people daily than the police have killed —whether justified or not—in the last three years combined. Comparatively, a black person is 1,187 times more likely to never be born than they are to be killed by a police officer. Historically speaking, it takes abortion clinics less than four days to kill more black people than all of the Jim Crow lynchings combined.  

So, do black lives really matter? I believe they do, and that is why we must abolish abortion.

Jonathan Richie