I don't like these ads and the subsequent sites not because they are racist (they are nonetheless) but they do a lot to polarize the debate about reproductive rights. Instead of it being a nuanced discussion about why all women (not just black women) would seek to have an abortion it turns the discussion into moral rights and wrong and general conspiracy theories.

It's a sensitive issue for many, so that is to be partly expected. But it would do us greatly if we stuck to the empirical evidence behind abortions for all women and the reasons why a woman would want to have one and what happens when they do not have that choice.

And to the data of that they are using, I am not convinced.

From the methods section of the study that the proponents use for their cause:

"Collection of abortion data is facilitated in most states by the legal requirement for hospitals, facilities, and physicians to report abortions to a central health agency. However, the reporting areas provide this information to CDC on a voluntary basis (5,6). Since 1996, a total of 46 reporting areas have provided a continuous annual record of abortion numbers.§ However, the number of reporting areas providing data on the characteristics of women obtaining abortions and the completeness of the information provided has varied from year to year. For abortions performed in 2006, CDC obtained information from 49 reporting areas (excludes California, Louisiana, and New Hampshire)."
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss5808a1.htm?s_cid=ss5808a1_e

The "voluntary basis" raises a red flag for me. So would private physicians be giving this information on a voluntary basis also? If so, that would skew the data. To what degree, I'm not sure. But it would be interesting to look into it. Furthermore, in 2006 they did not get information form California of all places. Additionally the following line also has me looking at this data skeptically: "and the completeness of the information provided has varied from year to year". To what degree has it varied?

Obviously, I am not questioning the legitimacy of the CDC. What I am questioning is the validity of the data. If that data is not telling the full story, that matters tremendously in the bigger scheme of things.

Most of that danger to african americans who are not yet born, however, comes from a lack of prenatal care for high risk (impoverished, very young) mothers - the stuff the right wing has been slashing from state and federal budgets whenever they can get away with it. Too bad we don't hear about that too much - that's just "consequences" of daring to have unentitled sex when poor!

I'm done arguing with these people. If they're too stupid to read a book about the history of women's health, then they can take care of all the billion orphaned poor children who were abandoned by their parents because they weren't able to support them.

I think if you are against abortion then you better be for adoption. but much like those against gay rights. They hate and are uncaring about any way to solve the problem. Polarizing sites like that are not the solution and you know what that means!

I think the billboard is disingenuous. While supporting the repeal of the health care reform legislation designed assist uninsured Black women in getting the health care services they need, the sponsors of this message claim to have the best interest of Black women and children in mind. Although I agree in spirit with Steve, using color-blindness here only makes this issue less salient for African Americans. The billboard targets Black folk! Let's talk about how this organization is exploiting images of black babies and black bodies to broaden its appeal. Again, this is not the time to be nor the billboard to make colorblind.

Interesting.

I'd think the most dangerous place for an African American child would be in in our nation's inner cities and small towns in which their parents are under and unemployed so the children are subsequently undernourished and mal-nutritioned, under-educated, and poorly housed while suffering health neglect that ultimately leads to, among other things, unplanned and unwanted pregnancies.

I'd think the most dangerous place for an African American child is a state that is hostile to their equal human rights but wants to use the specific tragedies and travesties of African American history to distort and distract from that fact.

But, that's what I get for thinking.

Lisa, I still REALLY don't like the tone you take in racial posts. You seem to imply (I don't know if it's your intent, but there we go) that this is something that is primarily the work of black people, if a minority of them. This is a manipulative tactic conceptualized by a group of people that may include blacks, but is not race specific (and indeed, blacks are a vast, vast minority in).

And as for your questions, no, it isn't appealing to the black community; most black people who've come in contact with this board have been quite offended. Probably because it is a manipulative tactic (THINK OF THE BABBYS AND THE FUTURE OF YOUR RACE!) that at the surface may seem like it is backed by race-concious black people, but really is just a weapon to get a group that is largely in favor of liberal social policies to sway the other way, even though it is not currently in most black people's best interest to support the conservative side of things.

I saw one of these endangered species PSAs the other day, but I didn't think anything of it (mainly because I have to filter everything through the racist lens I grew up with) until I put the ideas the ads raise in context with issues surrounding African American women giving birth and health risks connected with pregnancy.

The most dramatic issue is that African American women are 3-4 times more likely to die during childbirth than Caucasian Americans. This ratio increases the older African American women get rather than younger, so those that view abortion along socio-economic lines, the numbers don't add up. Unlike Caucasian Americans who wait until their late twenties to have children (deeper within the age-range where social success is achieved 25-35) because the later they wait to have babies in their late twenties and early thirties, the healthier the baby will be; however, African American women give birth on average a few years earlier in their lives (before the age-range where social success is achieved), making children a hindrance on their journey toward success.

What this study means in relationship with this ad campaign is that due to health factors, African American women are put in a tenuous position between their children's health and financial success. To have healthy children, African American should have their children earlier but they, like everyone else who have children early, are less emotionally and financially ready for the burden of a child. Furthermore, pointing out that abortion rates are higher amongst a population that must deal with childbirth on different terms than the average population as a whole seems disingenuous.

Just ... wow. And I suppose that none of the people promoting this stereotype will start propagating for free contraceptives and better sexual education any time soon.

What kind of (race? gender? class?) coding, exactly, are they using by choosing a wary-looking pre-teen girl as a model anyway? Given their obsession with teen pregnancy who's wombs are they talking about here?

Ick!!!

figleaf

So agree with what Dr. Kate and Bea Strike said up above.

Mainstream conservatives only see blacks as convenient targets (i.e. Welfare Queen meme), or as tools (as in this case). To them, we don't have any agency. That billboard is offensive beyond offensive.

Nice how the ad removes the woman from the equation entirely. It's simply "the womb."

Narrator: My suitcase was vibrating?

Airport Security Officer: Nine times out of ten it's an electric razor, but every once in a while ... it's a dildo. Of course it's company policy never to, imply ownership in the event of a dildo. Always use the indefinite article "a dildo", never "your dildo."

It's an interesting point that they're making. Historically, there is some veracity to their claims.

The political movement to legalize abortion (as well as various forms of birth control) was spearheaded by Progressives (as in, the intellectual leaders of the Progressive Era). The majority of these Progressives were also supporters of eugenics, which was a highly racialized scientific theory. Margaret Sanger, for example, was strongly in favor of limiting immigration into the U.S. out of a belief that it would lower the genetic stock of the American population. Tens of thousands of women (at least) also underwent compulsory sterilization throughout the U.S. from the Progressive Era on up into the 1960s. The majority of these women were either racial/ethnic minorities or extremely poor.

The Progressive movement was in fact a nexus point for eugenics, immigration restriction advocates, the temperance movement, the movement to legalize birth control and early feminism.

Ultimately, I'm pro-choice because I don't see any salient alternatives. However, I do find it interesting that liberals do their best to avoid any discussion of the Progressive Era's legacy. We know from sociology and American history that slavery and the Reconstruction period have left a deep legacy that has had profound cultural repercussions even today (by some measures). Yet we pretend that the distasteful history of the Progressive Era has had absolutely no effect on the present, or we dismiss it as "polarizing" (read: it has inconvenient ramifications for liberal political ends today).

I'm sure African Americans are so pleased to know the rich white man has their best interests at heart and is going to save them from themselves. Totally uplifting.

MLK, Jr. on the importance of family planning & Planned Parenthood:

http://www.plannedparenthood.org/about-us/who-we-are/reverend-martin-luther-king-jr-4728.htm

Ducky, obviously you have never beeen on the losing end of adoption.

Adoption vs. abortion isn't an equal fight and is a ridiculous argument to be made.

(see here: http://www.declassifiedadoptee.com/2010/05/abortion-vs-adoption-series-legacy-of.html from the point of view of an adoptee, the ones we really should be listening to in the adoption debates)

(Legally) Losing your black heratige to be adopted by some rich infertile white people who don't know when to let go of delusions of parenthood should be a MUCH bigger concern than being aborted.

Abortion vs. adoption is not valid debate. Surprisingly, this blog hasn't covered it recenlty, but it's not. It's another sociological conundrum.

Interesting take on the ad. I probably wouldn't have thought twice about it or should I say wouldn't have viewed it in the context you've laid out. It is most definitely unflattering to women of color - especially MOTHERS!

Point 2 is very important, I think. It's essentially appropriating the African-American civil rights struggle for a reactionary cause by accusing African-American women of engaging in autogenocide, a heinous shaming-tactic if there ever was one.

Is it wrong of me to say that I'd rather they spend their money on this, getting their name out in the community and showing people what they're really about, than spend it on something that might effectively limit abortion access?

Actually I'd rather they give money to me, and I can then give some to PPFA and NARAL.

So what I am seeing is that these billboards are definely targeting women of color in order to draw more sympathy votes for their cause, but abortion has been legal since the 70's. If you are now going to start using race and class to draw attention to this issue doesn't it seem to those who are reading this article that you would funnel some of that add campaign money into providing all around better health care,education, and housing for these women of color. instead of focusing on offending a whole race of people. They might find they had more support. .I must tell you as a women who has had abortions in the past this is not just a racial issue, nor is it just an economical issue. There are lots of reasons people make the choices that they make and they may not always be apparent to those around them.