We’re all familiar with the argument that racism is fomented by those who exploit poor whites, in order to generate a convenient and often dehumanized scapegoat and thus prevent oppressed white workers from realizing who their real enemies are.\u00a0 The upper-class white in effect says to the lower-class white whom he is oppressing, \u201cHey, don\u2019t blame me for your miserable existence.\u00a0 It\u2019s those \u2018n . . . .s\u2019 who want your job and keep wages down by flooding the market with cheap labor.\u00a0 Get them.\u00a0 Lynch them.\u00a0 Kill them.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Well, similarly, those in our society who oppress women are given a convenient scapegoat in the frequently dehumanized unborn child.\u00a0 The male says to the female he gets pregnant and abandons, \u201cHey, don\u2019t blame me for your problems.\u00a0 It\u2019s that \u2018fetus\u2019 inside you.\u00a0 Get it.\u00a0 Abort it.\u00a0 Kill it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Or, again, those who stigmatize unwed mothers instead of reacting with compassion can say, \u201cDon\u2019t blame us for your ostracism from the community.\u00a0 We\u2019ll be glad to take you back, if you cover up what you did by getting an abortion.\u00a0 That \u2018fetus\u2019 is your enemy.\u00a0 Get it.\u00a0 Kill it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Or, again, the businesses that pay women less because they get pregnant, that don’t provide paid maternity leave and even fire pregnant women, that don’t in any way (that is, by part-time jobs) try to help men and women accommodate their family responsibilities\u2014all these businesses can say with abortion available, \u201cHey, don\u2019t blame us for your economic problems.\u00a0 It\u2019s that damn \u2018fetus.\u2019\u00a0 We\u2019ll treat you just like always if you\u2019ll get rid of it.\u00a0 Kill it.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
And, finally, abortion lets the government tell the poor and the black (at home and abroad):\u00a0 \u201cHey don\u2019t blame us or U.S. capitalism for your troubles.\u00a0 It\u2019s your own kids.\u00a0 They are your real enemy.\u00a0 You\u2019ll see how happy you\u2019ll be if you just get rid of them.\u00a0 Kill them.\u00a0 We\u2019ll even pay for it!\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
In none of these cases are the oppressed (poor whites, blacks, women) forced to turn to racism or to abortion.\u00a0 But the dehumanization and scapegoating of blacks and of the unborn nevertheless are used as tools of systematic oppression.\u00a0 The mere fact that women in theory have \u201cfreedom of choice\u201d in regard to abortion doesn’t stop them from being exploited by abortion, because the parameters of that choice are strictly limited by the interests of sexism, racism, and capitalism, and because the consciousness of this limitation is ideologically suppressed by the use of the \u201cfetus\u201d as a scapegoat.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nBlacks in Africa have long regarded abortion \u201cas the white man\u2019s new(est) form of genocide,\u201d stated Dr. Margaret White of Croyden, England at the annual meeting of the National Federation of Catholic Physicians Guilds.\u00a0 The United States Agency for International Development has financed a spokesman who attacks the antiquated laws of the colonial masters and at the same time is calling for more contraception and abortion.\u00a0 \u201cI find this . . . a nastier form of colonialism than ours,\u201d she stated.\u00a0 The U.S. Center For Disease Control and Prevention lists the abortion rate for non-whites as twice that of whites in America.\u00a0 (Ob-Gyn News<\/em>, 3-15-77).<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n The [National Youth Pro-life Coalition] NYPLC Board of Directors, in a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, has condemned the U.S. government\u2019s plan to sterilize one-fourth of the world\u2019s fertile women, and has called for an end to the plan\u2019s covert funding of the International Planned Parenthood Federation . . . .\u00a0The NYPLC pointed out that such a massive program must necessarily involve heavy one-sided propaganda, if not coercion.\u00a0 The real motive behind federally-financed abortion and sterilization, keeping down the demands of the poor for social justice, is now out in the open and must be resisted, the NYPLC declared.\u00a0. . .<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Interestingly, the leftist press in the U.S. and abroad has for a number of years agreed with the pro-life movement about the often regressive nature of the government push for abortion and sterilization, even though the left has not generally been against abortion per se.\u00a0 For example, the cartoon below appeared on the cover of a journal called Science for the People<\/em> in January, 1977.\u00a0 The remark by Che Guevara is a warning that abortion may be used to kill the unborn poor before they have a chance to grow up to be revolutionaries.\u00a0 The artist is Wen-Ti Tsen of Cambridge, Massachusetts.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n =====================================<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n For more of our posts from Richard Stith, see:<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Equal Concern for Each Human Being, Not for Each Human Issue<\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Open Letter to Fellow Human Rights Activists<\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n When \u201cChoice\u201d Itself Hurts the Quality of Life\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n A Friendly Approach<\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n The Mirror-Image Counterpart of the Selfish Society<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Richard Stith [Originally published in The New Human (Vol. VI, No. 5, June 1977), newsletter of the National Youth Pro-Life Coalition,, under the title \u201cAbortion Proponents Are Often Exploiters of Women.\u201d Lightly edited.] We’re all familiar with the argument that racism is fomented by those who exploit poor whites, in order to generate a… <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/consistent-life.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/3-blog-Stith.jpg\")
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