“If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow: he shall be surely punished, according as the woman’s husband will lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine.

And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life,
.”

— Exodus 21:22-23

On February 28, 2024, I was engrossed in a Capitol Hill hearing delving into Abortion Access & Economic Costs. The event explored the Dobbs vs. Jackson decision, abortion access, economic stability, and the vital concepts of bodily autonomy and freedom. While attentively listening to five white-skinned women discuss abortion, I was struck by the frequent mention of black women in their opening remarks. Every panelist asserted that abortion is deemed necessary for black women. Particularly noteworthy was Senator Woodward, emphasizing that overturning Roe vs. Wade has had the most significant impact on black women, especially those in the south.

Speaking as a black woman who grew up poor, it's time for white women to stop dictating what black women need. Speak for yourselves. From personal experience, I can tell you that we don't need rights to have an abortion. We don't need someone telling us that, due to unfortunate economic situations, we should terminate our pregnancies. Not all black women live in poverty; we work, have healthcare, and, in some cases, even pay for it ourselves. I know that may be hard for some to believe—but it's true. However even if poverty was an economic constraint responsibility and not abortion, should be the solution.

I had healthcare since I was eighteen when I graduated high school and stepped onto the American train to economic opportunity. I delivered two healthy babies—in the hospital and had the best OBGYN care in both cases. In fact, my first son was born when I was 21-years old; he was an emergency C-section, and I can’t even begin to tell you the impact a white male doctor had on my life as he guided me through that process. My son’s cord had wrapped around his neck—the doctor came in and said, 'We lost his heartbeat, but we got it back, and if we lose it again—we are going to do a c-section.' He walked out of the room and back in, and the next thing I remember is opening my eyes to my baby in his grandmother’s arms. That was the healthcare I received. I AM a child of the Most High—a poor black woman.

I raised two sons as a single parent, worked hard, day and night. I worked from sunup to sundown. I attended college and graduate school at night—making pennies—yet I have thrived. These women who sit on panels, with all of their education, elite credentials, and accolades, are misguided; they testify that the lack of abortion rights will result in 30,000 more live babies in states where abortion is restricted—as if that is a curse. They pretend the flip side of this circumstance is not death, but rather economic prosperity. Are we so lost and wicked that we argue it is better to terminate pregnancies than to bring forth children, especially black children. Haven’t black women always aligned ourselves with the Word of God, which states to be fruitful and multiply? That’s too much like right—I know. but I will spare you the religious sentiment— I won’t even go there.

This year, on Martin Luther King Day, Kamala Harris took to the stage to defend the right of women to terminate pregnancies due to economic hardship and lack of resources. Harris asserts that the government has no right to decide what choices we should make for our own lives. Does she not see the contradiction—she is championing personal autonomy and freedom while simultaneously advocating for governmental control over reproductive choices in the pro-choice debate. Throughout her discourse, she never once recognize the life of the innocent, unborn child—given no choice.

The abortion topic is the foundation of the Democratic political campaign. It is all this political party has to run on. They can’t run on Bidenomics or the boarder. The irony, they would have nothing to campaign on, were it not for Trump. It is disheartening to hear this language from a woman who has no children. Despite never experiencing childbirth herself, she actively engages in discussions about reproductive rights. For clarity, reproduction and termination are fundamentally opposed to one another. When you terminate a pregnancy, there is no way to reproduce.

I understand that people argue that abortion is a form of reproductive care, that is a lie. Like the notion that a man can give birth. Reproductive care is specifically designed for reproduction and only women can reproduce. That's why healthcare related to reproduction is administered by an OBGYN. Women seeking abortion services will visit abortionists to terminate a pregnancy. Maybe they have an OBGYN title—but to the unborn they are monsters in white jackets.

Many women in this world have babies in the direst economic situations you can imagine. Women have babies in refugee camps. Women who live in the most impoverished countries in the world have babies. Many women, with nothing more than the clothes on their back and breasts filled with milk, don't consider bringing life into the world a death sentence.

Here we are American black women, listening as white women, or women of color, twist our stories to support their argument that women have the right to decide —as if a court decision will prevent them for committing such a crime. Blacks fail to realize where this is coming from; it's coming from a community of individuals whose foundation started with the KKK. It’s coming from a community of folk who were once on a mission to curb the number of black births. Remember eugenics. It's coming from a community of people that hold out particular resources, like carrots but tell women, "You can have this, but you must get rid of that: the father or your man.”

What happened to black women like Claudine—a movie I know is fictitious, but her mentality to keep her children, to lover her baby that was having a baby, was held by many black women. My mother had four children; my grandmothers on both sides birthed thirteen children. Yes, we were poor, we received food stamps, stood on cheese and peanut butter lines, and ate stale bread, but we made it. My mother picked cotton and would tell us stories of why the tips of her fingers were faded dark-blue and how spiderwebs were used in place of stitches after a chicken wire nearly slashed her foot into two as a child—but she made it. Considering all the economic safety nets, it is something that black people want so much more. They now want the right to terminate pregnancy and are being told by whites that this is a good idea.

One of the women on a panel was a mother who had lost her child. I listened to this mother cry about not being able to abort her baby, in her hometown after discovering the baby's life wouldn't be viable. With tears in her eyes, she told the story of how she had to buy plane tickets and travel out of state alone to have an abortion—only to get there and discover the baby's heart had stopped beating. That baby girl had died on it’s own. She felt no guilt that she was attempting to take away that babies right to fight on its own.

That is a sad story—considering a baby with unknown defects could be so unwanted. The woman who testified cried because she was alone and never shed a tear for the life of the baby that had died. It is sickening to listen to these people as they pretend to be so hurt, yet only demonstrate sympathy for their own selves. She dedicated her opening remarks to the life of the baby she willing jumped through hoops to destroy. Can you imagine—she dedicated her remarks to a fight to end the life of her baby.

Republicans are speaking out about abortion rights because they are looking at their birth rates. There numbers are low. Black women may be the primary demographic obtaining abortions, but white women are not far behind. White Republicans are saying, 'this ain't right.' Nobody on the black side is standing up for black babies—but we are quick to pronounce Black Lives Matter—seriously. Black lives matter, as long as they are not threatening your own road to economic prosperity. All other lives we can justifiably terminate.

I keep hearing this song, “Blacks are coming off the plantation.” Blacks have hung to democrat policies despite its wreckage on the black family structure. We continue to support ideas that dismantle our community, from individuals that tell us we are in need of social programs to help us make it day to day to those who will argue it makes sense to terminate your baby. It's quite offensive to consider that body autonomy is directly tied to economic opportunity, when it means terminating a life.

But I think we are in need of housing, education and economic opportunity. Last I checked this is the same thing most Americans are in need of. Democrats are saying it is okay to terminate your baby because they would much rather allow the termination of poor children than provide resources for their growth. What is worse is they blame radical Christianity for the idea that a zygote and an embryo are human life. Yet they will march in the name of Hamas and support a radical group of Islamists that wants to enforce Sharia Law, where if a woman even thinks about abortion, she could be killed. Where women are stoned to death, and girls are sold into marriages.

I am not saying, white women have no right to speak on the topic of abortion. They have every right to do so, but why does their focus always shift to poor black women. Speak for the poor whites, or white women in general, after all—blacks and women of color are not the only ones aborting babies. This topic sounds better when it’s something that benefits poor black women.

I am writing this not just because I think black women need to rethink the narratives we support. I am writing this because we need to recognize when individuals tell you they have your best interests in mind, you should wonder—at what cost.