Hattie’s Hangout: Advocating for Black Pre-Born Lives Also Matters

Every time I drive by a Planned Parenthood location, I feel a knot in my stomach twist as I think about what happens in that building every day. These grey, cold buildings sit in the middle of neighborhoods with a haunting presence, advertising healthcare for women, but by the looks of the exterior, there seems to be no sense of care within the entire vicinity of the property. 

On Saturday morning, I opened up my Instagram to see a picture of what real championing for those needing justice looks like. Students for Life, a non-profit organization that focuses on getting college students involved in the pro-life movement, posted a picture of the statement “Black Preborn Lives Matter” written out in large block letters outside a Planned Parenthood in Baltimore, Maryland. 

The first time a group from the organization tried to write out the same phrase in chalk outside an abortion clinic in Washington, D.C. on the 1200 block of Fourth Street last month, they were quickly shut down, resulting in the arrest of two of the members. Despite acting on their freedom of speech, the studens were sent away by police. 

However, if you look back to June, the mayor of Washington Muriel Browser commissioned painters to write the phrase “Black Lives Matter” on 16th Street near the White House in bold yellow letters. These eye-catching letters were captured from an arial view and broadcasted for all to see. Messages of defunding the police were painted and posted by protestors around the city with full permission from the city. 

There was no pushback from government authorities and no arrests made. Why was this not the case for students advocating for the lives of 20 million Black pre-born infants murdered through abortion since Roe v. Wade?

Through the research done by the Students for Life organization and a Supreme Court amicus brief, they found that 80% of Planned Parenthood clinics are located in minority neighborhoods, feeding off vulnerable women who live in those communities. 

As more voices are amplified about their disgust for the way marginalized people have been treated in the US, very few of them want to admit that the organization of Black Lives Matter has no interest in defunding an organization that kills more of the Black population than the police ever could.

A statement on the “What We Believe” page on the Black Lives Matter  website reads, “In the years since, we’ve committed to struggling together and to imagining and creating a world free of anti-blackness, where every Black person has the social, economic and political power to thrive.” 

Unfortunately, the thousands of Black babies killed yearly won’t have the opportunity to thrive. 

Nowhere on the Black Lives Matter website could I find a single glimpse of the organization taking a stand against the federal funding of Planned Parenthood, which has stripped away the lives of millions of babies Black and White. Instead, I found several instances where the organization funds politicians who are in direct support of Planned Parenthood and the work they perform. 

Planned Parenthood does not believe that life matters, especially the lives of pre-born Black infants, yet these buildings remained unscathed as riots and protests flooded the streets of cities across the nation this summer. 

If BLM believes all lives can’t matter until Black lives matter, what about the pre-born lives? 

Hattie Troutman is the Editor-in-Chief. Follow her on Twitter at @hattrout.