Georgia state Senate disguises anti-choice politics in abortion bill

The state of Georgia is eroding women’s rights, specifically the reproductive rights of black women.  Recently in Atlanta numerous billboards have been placed proclaiming that black children are an endangered species.  The reason for this apparent endangered status is abortion.  These billboards were paid for by Georgia Right to Life, an anti-choice organization.  They claim that the eugenic racism of the early birth control movement continues today as abortion providing services are singling out black women to have abortions in effort to wipe out the race.  In response, the Georgia State Senate passed a vague law that prohibits abortions based solely on sex or race of the fetus.

While this may seem like a strike against racism and sexism, it is not.  Paternalism is the idea that a group of people collectively do not know what’s best for themselves, and must be cared for by a more “wise” group.  Both women and black people face this from the white male power structure that dominants our country. This very idea that women, especially black women, cannot be trusted to make the right decision about their bodies and their futures is the very heart of racism and sexism in our country today.  

The racial problem here is especially interesting.  This law is supposed to be about protecting the black community.  In reality, the senators who passed this law are good ol’ boys whose records have shown they do not care about black people and especially about black women.  These senators have not voted for laws that support the black community.  They do not care about supporting these children they are bringing into this world or their families.  These senators do not work to pass laws that will benefit mothers or children.  They are not improving the school system or trying to close the education gap.  They are not trying to make it easier for women to provide financially for their families.  They are not trying to help black people succeed in life.  

Black women have certainly faced eugenic measures intended to wipe them and their potential offspring from this country.  A large minority of black women were forcibly sterilized and made infertile by the government throughout the 20th century.  It is true that members of the early birth control movement supported at least in part the prevention of “unfit’ births, by the unintelligent, the poor, immigrants, and other lesser races.  Abortion was made illegal in this country so that middle-class white women would be forced to carry to term their pregnancies so that the lesser races would not overtake the white majority.  Blaming eugenics today is pointing the finger in the wrong direction.  

Black women do have the highest number of abortions in this country, because they have the highest percentage of unplanned pregnancies.  There is uneven access to reproductive knowledge in this country.  There is nothing being taught in schools to anyone and after school it is even harder to find the correct information through all the lies of the anti-birth control and anti-choice movements.  Access to knowledge is based in power, power that marginalized groups are still trying to get.  We as a people ought to be making access easier not restricting rights.

In short, these billboards and this new law are saying that women of all races do not have to right to control their reproductive options.  That their reasons for choosing not to be a mother are invalid.  Women are not children, who have to be protected for their own good.  They know what they are and are not capable of.  Women who get abortions do not want the pregnancies they have for their own specific, valid reasons and needs. We, as strangers and as society, do not have the right to tell them what is best for them.  To do that, is to deny them their humanity.   Women should be trusted to make their own decisions.  Not have it handed down to them by a government who could really care less about them and their potential children.