Making the civil-rights case

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MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Up next, a new Virginia state amendment could have implications for black families.

Racism played a part in the pro-abortion movement during the early days of Planned Parenthood. Now, pro-life advocates hope to convince black voters to reject an amendment that would erode pro-life protections.

WORLD’s Lauren Canterberry has the story.

LAUREN CANTERBERRY: In late May, about 50 people filed into Mount Olivet Church in Richmond. They were not there for a celebration or a service. Instead, they were gathered to pray and to discuss a new pro-abortion constitutional amendment.

J.R. Gurley is a pastor in Newport News. He’s also the Virginia ambassador for the Frederick Douglass Freedom Alliance, which co-hosted the prayer breakfast.

J.R. GURLEY: When this particular amendment popped up in Virginia, we knew that we had to do something about it immediately.

If approved, the amendment would prevent anyone from “interfering” with a woman’s right to an abortion. That means even parents could not protect their daughters from having an abortion. It would also change the number of medical professionals needed to approve a third-trimester abortion from three to one—and that one could be an abortionist.

Gurley says it would disproportionately affect black families.

GURLEY: It’s entirely reasonable to ask whether this amendment will further reduce the number of black children born in Virginia. And anyone who is looking at this with one eye open and one eye closed can see in the future and say, 'Absolutely.'

At the meeting in Richmond, a panel of black pastors and community leaders told attendees about the effects of abortion on black babies.

In 2022, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that black babies are aborted at more than four times the rate of white babies. Meanwhile, only about 18% of Virginia's population is black, but 32% of all abortions performed in the state were on black women.

GURLEY: We discuss disparities in education. We discuss disparities in health care. We discuss disparities in the criminal justice system. We discuss disparities everywhere. So why would we suddenly stop caring about outcomes when it comes to unborn children?

Gurley says those high abortion rates began with the founder of Planned Parenthood, Margaret Sanger. In 1939 she started a project aimed at increasing birth control use among black people, but the program quickly devolved to include abortion.

Gurley and other pro-lifers say abortion has shifted from a moral issue to a political one, making way for pro-abortion policies to receive broad support. According to the Pew Research Center, more than 80% of Democrats believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases. Just 36% of Republicans believe the same.

In last year’s election, every county and city in the state shifted toward the Democrat party. The same party includes abortion access as one of its key goals and introduced and passed the current amendment.

Bishop Garland Hunt is the president of the Douglass Leadership Institute and spoke at the meeting in May. He says the Democrat party has drawn in many black voters with its focus on human rights and social issues.

GARLAND HUNT: So that does resonate with black people because they feel like it’s a certain freedom that we should fight for. Like slavery, we needed freedom from slavery, now we need freedom for a woman to be able to choose whether to go through with a baby or to terminate the pregnancy.

Hunt said pastors have also shied away from discussing abortion because it is perceived as too political or not politically aligned with their congregations.

HUNT: They allow the racial identity and their political identity to supersede their identity with Christ.

Hunt and Garland plan to host more community meetings. They hope the attendees will share what they learn with their friends and family.

HUNT: So our goal is transforming their minds and their hearts to Christ Jesus. If we can transform the mind and transform the thinking, then they will automatically vote the right way.

The new constitutional amendment is set to go before Virginia voters in November.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Lauren Canterberry.

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