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I definitely wasn't clear about something in my last, massive post. I was getting a little tired by the end, I guess. When I talked about the racial disparity in the abortion statistics, I wasn't trying to accuse Planned Parenthood of racial targeting or suggesting that they shouldn't put their clinics in low-income areas. What I meant was simply this:
Planned Parenthood caters to people who can't, or who think they can't, get care elsewhere because of the expense. Of course, that's not universally true, but it does seem that a large percentage of their customers, especially for abortions are low-income women. It also seems, looking at PP's statistics, that the low income women who visit them tend to be non-white. These are women in distressed circumstances, and low-cost health care is helpful to them. However, they are a vulnerable population. If a woman with a higher income has an abortion, it's less likely that the primary cause was her economic situation. For the women Planned Parenthood usually serves, the economic hardship is one of the most--if not the most--compelling factor in her decision to abort. Because Planned Parenthood depends on abortion revenues for so much of its income, and because individual clinics are pressured to perform more abortions (as revealed by Abby Johnson and a variety of other former PP employees), the staff at Planned Parenthood is likely to promote abortion as the most realistic solution to an unplanned pregnancy for a poor woman. If a desperate woman comes in saying that she can't afford a child and would like an abortion, PP will not attempt to talk her out of it because it is not in its interest to do so. This is the problem. Here is a woman who might really want her child--of course, she might not--but either way, she is not getting any useful emotional or financial support from Planned Parenthood. Nobody should feel that they have no alternative but to abort, but because Planned Parenthood promotes itself so loudly among women who are desperate, these impoverished, frightened pregnant women turn to them. Their desperation is not dealt with in healthy ways, and their difficulties are not eased. Abortion does not solve the problems of poverty. It creates the problems of guilt, pain, regret, anger, and depression in women who saw nowhere else to turn. This, as I see it, is what Planned Parenthood is doing to poor, minority populations. Their objective is no longer eugenics, but their practice is having much the same effect. Minorities are noticing, however--especially the black population, which has led to a growing pro-life organization called Black Americans for Life led by, among others, Alveda King, niece of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Planned Parenthood caters to people who can't, or who think they can't, get care elsewhere because of the expense. Of course, that's not universally true, but it does seem that a large percentage of their customers, especially for abortions are low-income women. It also seems, looking at PP's statistics, that the low income women who visit them tend to be non-white. These are women in distressed circumstances, and low-cost health care is helpful to them. However, they are a vulnerable population. If a woman with a higher income has an abortion, it's less likely that the primary cause was her economic situation. For the women Planned Parenthood usually serves, the economic hardship is one of the most--if not the most--compelling factor in her decision to abort. Because Planned Parenthood depends on abortion revenues for so much of its income, and because individual clinics are pressured to perform more abortions (as revealed by Abby Johnson and a variety of other former PP employees), the staff at Planned Parenthood is likely to promote abortion as the most realistic solution to an unplanned pregnancy for a poor woman. If a desperate woman comes in saying that she can't afford a child and would like an abortion, PP will not attempt to talk her out of it because it is not in its interest to do so. This is the problem. Here is a woman who might really want her child--of course, she might not--but either way, she is not getting any useful emotional or financial support from Planned Parenthood. Nobody should feel that they have no alternative but to abort, but because Planned Parenthood promotes itself so loudly among women who are desperate, these impoverished, frightened pregnant women turn to them. Their desperation is not dealt with in healthy ways, and their difficulties are not eased. Abortion does not solve the problems of poverty. It creates the problems of guilt, pain, regret, anger, and depression in women who saw nowhere else to turn. This, as I see it, is what Planned Parenthood is doing to poor, minority populations. Their objective is no longer eugenics, but their practice is having much the same effect. Minorities are noticing, however--especially the black population, which has led to a growing pro-life organization called Black Americans for Life led by, among others, Alveda King, niece of Martin Luther King, Jr.
