Pro-choice and pro-life activists are trading accusations of racism in Atlanta, where two anti-abortion groups erected dozens of billboards declaring, "Black children are an endangered species." Georgia Right to Life and the Radiance Foundation, which posted the signs, say they want to call attention to high abortion rates among African Americans, and to the concentration of abortion clinics in urban, black neighborhoods. Abortion rights advocates say the billboards "paint black women as monsters." Are the billboards exposing a race problem -- or creating one?
These billboards are cynical and racist: The anti-abortion activists don't care about improving the lives of black women and children, says Samhita Mukhopadhyay in Femisting. If anything, curbing access to abortion will make life more difficult for black women. So trying to deprive African American women of control of their own bodies -- and accuse pro-choicers of wanting to wipe out blacks in the bargain -- is both racist and sexist.
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