The statement below was written in the summer of 1989 by Marcia Gillespie, who was then editor of Ms. Magazine. One of the signers, Loretta Ross, explains its history:
“This statement … originated with a conference call organized by Donna Brazile, then executive director of the National Political Congress of Black Women, because we were strategizing on how to respond to the Webster Supreme Court decision [the 1989 ruling that allowed individual states to restrict access to abortion]. On that conference call, we decided that what was most urgently needed was a statement giving African American women permission to talk about abortion (the original suggestion was made by Byllye Avery). We then published the statement, distributed about 1/4 million copies of it, and the rest is history.”
Choice is the essence of freedom. It’s what we African Americans have struggled for all these years. The right to choose where we would sit on a bus. The right to vote. The right for each of us to select our own paths, to dream and reach for our dreams. The right to choose how we would or would not live our lives.
This freedom–to choose and to exercise our choices–is what we’ve fought and died for. Brought here in chains, worked like mules, bred like beasts, whipped one day, sold the next–244 years we were held in bondage. Somebody said that we were less than human and not fit for freedom. Somebody said we were like children and could not be trusted to think for ourselves. Somebody owned our flesh and decided if and when and with whom and how our bodies were to be used. Somebody said that black women could be raped, held in concubinage, forced to bear children year in and year out, but often not raise them. Oh, yes, we have known how painful it is to be without choice in this land.
Those of us who remember the bad old days when Jim Crow rules and segregation were the way of things know the hardships and indignities we faced. We were free, but few or none were our choices. Somebody said where we could live and couldn’t, where we could work, what schools we could go to, where we could eat, how we could travel. Somebody prevented us from voting. Somebody said we could be paid less than other workers. Somebody burned crosses, harassed and terrorized us in order to keep us down.
Now once again, somebody is trying to say that we can’t handle the freedom of choice. Only this time they’re saying African-American women can’t think for themselves and, therefore, can’t be allowed to make serious decisions. Somebody’s saying that we should not have the freedom to take charge of our personal lives and protect our health, that we only have limited rights over our bodies. Somebody’s once again forcing women to acts of desperation, because somebody’s saying that if women have unintended pregnancies, it’s too bad, but they must pay the price.
Somebody’s saying that we must have babies whether we choose to or not. Doesn’t matter what we say, doesn’t matter how we feel. Some say that abortion under any circumstance is wrong, others say that rape and incest and danger to the life of the woman are the only exceptions. Doesn’t matter that nobody’s saying who decides if it was rape or incest, if a woman’s word is good enough, if she must go into court and prove it. Doesn’t matter that she may not be able to take care of a baby, that the problem also affects girls barely out of adolescence, that our children are having children. Doesn’t matter if you’re poor and pregnant–go on welfare or walk away.
What does matter is that we know abortions will still be done, legal or not. We know the consequences when women are forced to make choices without protection–the coat hangers and knitting needles that punctured the wombs of women forced to seek back-alley abortions on kitchen tables at the hands of butchers. The women who died screaming in agony, awash in their own blood. The women who were made sterile. All the women who endured the pain of makeshift surgery with no anesthetics and risked fatal infection.
We understand why African-American women risked their lives then and why they seek safe, legal abortion now. It’s been a matter of survival. Hunger and homelessness. Inadequate housing and income to properly provide for themselves and their children. Family instability. Rape. Incest. Abuse. Too young, too old, too sick, too tired. Emotional, physical, mental, economic, social–the reasons for not carrying a pregnancy to term are endless and varied, personal, urgent and private. And for all these pressing reasons, African-American women once again will be among the first forced to risk their lives if abortion is made illegal.
There have always been those who have stood in the way of our exercising our rights, who tried to restrict our choices. There probably always will be. But we who have been oppressed should not be swayed in our opposition to tyranny of any kind, especially attempts to take away our reproductive freedom. You may believe abortion is wrong. We respect your belief and we will do all in our power to protect that choice for you. You may decide that abortion is not an option you would choose. Reproductive freedom guarantees your right not to. All that we ask is that no one deny another human being the right to make her own choice. That no one condemn her to exercising her choices in ways that endanger her health, her life. And that no one prevent others from creating safe, affordable, legal conditions to accommodate women, whatever the choices they make. Reproductive freedom gives each of us the right to make our own choices and guarantees us a safe, legal, affordable support system. It’s the right to choose.
We are still an embattled people beset with life-and-death issues. Black America is under siege. Drugs, the scourge of our community, are wiping out one, two, three generations. We are killing ourselves and each other. Rape and other unspeakable acts of violence are becoming sickeningly commonplace. Babies linger on death’s door, at risk at birth: born addicted to crack and cocaine, born underweight and undernourished, born AIDS infected. An ever-growing number of our children are being abandoned, being mentally, physically, spiritually abused. Homelessness, hunger, unemployment run rife. Poverty grows. Our people cry out in desperation, anger, and need.
Meanwhile, those somebodies who claim they’re “pro-life” aren’t moved to help the living. They’re not out there fighting to break the stranglehold of drugs and violence in our communities, trying to save our children or moving to provide infant and maternal nutrition and health programs. Eradicating poverty isn’t on their agenda. No–somebody’s too busy picketing, vandalizing, and sometimes bombing family-planning clinics, harassing women and denying funds to poor women seeking abortions.
So when somebody denouncing abortion claims that they’re “pro-life,” remind them of an old saying that our grandmothers often used: “It’s not important what people say, it’s what they do.” And remember who we are, remember our history, our continuing struggle for freedom. Remember to tell them that we remember!
Original Signers: Byllye Avery (National Black Women’s Health Project) Rev. Willie Barrow (Operation Push) Donna Brazile (Housing Now) Shirley Chisholm (National Political Congress of Black Women) Representative Cardiss Collins (U.S. Congress) Romona Edelin (National Urban Coalition) Jacqui Gates (National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women’s Clubs, Inc.) Marcia Ann Gillespie (Ms. Magazine) Dorothy Height (National Council of Negro Women) Jewel Jackson McCabe (National Coalition of 100 Black Women) Julianne Malveaux (San Francisco Black Leadership Forum) Eleanor Holmes Norton (Georgetown University Law School) C. Delores Tucker (DNC Black Caucus) Patricia Tyson (Religious Coalition for Abortion Rights) Maxine Waters (Black Women’s Forum) Faye Wattleton (Planned Parenthood Federation of America)
Additional Signers in 1994: Tony M. Bond Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun (D-IL) Rep. Corrine Brown (D-FL) Rep. Eva Clayton (D-NC) Rep. Barbara-Rose Collins (D-MI) Rev. Alma Crawford Evelyn S. Field Rev. Catherine Godbolte Rev. Dr. Claudia Highbaugh Beverly Hunter Rev. Elenora Giddings Ivory Bernice Powell Jackson Terri James Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) Bisola Marignay The Rev. Dr. Joan Martin Cassandra McConnell Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) Rep. Carrie P. Meek (D-FL) Mary F. Morten Cynthia Newbille Mary Jane Patterson Loretta Ross Jerald Lillian Scott Beverly W. Stripling Elizabeth Terry Mable Thomas Winnette P. Willis Kim Youngblood
Reprinted from Our Bodies, Ourselves Website: http://www.ourbodiesourselves.org/book/companion.asp?id=20&compID=41
There are several excellent points made here.
Normally, I’m not very keen on politics. however, at times we all have to take notice. Worthy of note, thank you.
As a married father of four, I am heartbroken by your blog. Honestly, I got three quarters of the way through and decided to stop reading; I felt I could predict the ending. I have listened to you on “Greatness by Design” and “Make it Plain” and was an initial fan until hearing some of your most recent comments concerning abortion. Why do you feel that our ancestors, who you claim died for our freedom, would feel if they knew that today’s black woman desires to fight to abort their children in a free society? I think it is disrespectful to use their sacrifices as a premise for freedom to abort. As a father, I too have given up freedoms to raise a family. However, I can’t image what else is more important than rearing my seed and watching them grow into productive citizens. You seem to be the type that is more concerned with accumulating a repertoire and recognition. Although I am not a proponent of abortion, I would not stand in the way of a woman having one. I feel that if she can live with aborting a human life, I can too. However, I think your association of abortion and freedom through the sacrifices of slaves are quite weak.
I take issue with some of your concepts. You claim that “Choice is the essence of freedom.” However, how do the sacrifices of blacks slaves automatically translate to a black woman’s choice to abort a pregnancy like quitting a job or dropping out of college? What does Jim Crow have to do with your ability to abort a pregnancy? Riding a bus and voting are poor, casual analogies to use when compared to aborting a pregnancy. The freedom to live your life is not guaranteed through an abortion. Just ask women who are serving prison sentences if their “choices” to commit crimes should or should not have affected their level of freedom they enjoyed prior to their imprisonment. Adoption is the ultimate freedom for the mother and the child if a mother chooses not to be a mother; she is free to live and so is the child. What about your choice not to get pregnant? Why run the risk if you feel you have to bear the same burden as those who died for your freedom of choice? I think the right to simply live is the rawest form of freedom afforded to any human being. Terminating a life for the sake of your own personal comfort is not a measure of freedom in any sense. It is a prime example of liberal selfishness.
You are fighting for a contributing factor that threatens the existence of a minority community that makes of less that 12 % of our nation’s population. You seem to be the type to fight for “planned parenthood” clinics in low income black neighborhoods. Your fight for the right to terminate abortions could be co-opted by those who share your view; to terminate the birth of black infants before they can be counted as people. Would you support the use of aborted black embryos used for stem cell research or the sell of these black embryos to science? Would that feed into your fight for freedom? Mrs. Williams, you appear to be an extremely intelligent woman. I just hope that you would reconsider your stance on fighting for the annihilation of black babies in the name of “female freedom”. This, coupled with the absence of responsible black fathers, appears to be a slippery slope for the survival of our people.
First of all freedom requires hearing that which we don’t necessarily agree with but must admit their right to speak whatever their truth and experience bears. I applaud your willingness to read something out of your comfort zone and more importantly to respond and articulate your feelings respectfully and from the heart. I feel your position in the words you speak and will respond to each point made, if I may.
First of all greatness sometimes requires me to stretch even beyond my comfort zone. As a single mother, my choice to keep my son was a solo decision that his biological father did not share. That being said, every man and every woman doesn’t think alike because we are all raised differently, have different experiences, values, understanding and reach our decisions based on different realities and from different perspectives.
I would hope that being a fan of someone isn’t only based on the fact that they agree with everything you think but instead are critical in their perspective, speak truth even when its unpopular, are respectful in its delivery, and sometimes challenge you to think.
Abortion is a touchy subject for men and women. We have been taught and believe in certain values yet often times the reality of situations require tough decisions to be made. Do I think abortion is a good choice? No. But in certain situations and for certain people, I would have to support that decision and let them deal with God in private.
You shared a key phrase when expressing yourself. You said, “I can’t imagine what else is more important than rearing my seed and watching them grow into productive citizens.” My heart leapt to hear these words. Every father, but not every man, feels this way. I admit I had been naïve for most of my life thinking this too. My father was an amazing man who had 5 children, yet my son’s biological father did not feel the same way. I’m not alone in this but I made the decision to rear my son, watch him grow and make sure he is a productive citizen.
My blog, Breaking our Silence, is about giving voice to many voices without reservation. The piece you read was written, supported and collectively signed by historical black women that I guess you would not consider worthy of your praise anymore; women like Dr. Dorothy Height, Donna Brazile, Shirley Chisholm, Maxine Waters, Faye Wattleton, Julianne Malveaux, Carrie Meeks and many others.
To say that I am speaking to simply accumulate a repertoire or recognition is false and not supported by my life’s work. Look at the women listed above and you tell me if that letter and their collective voices negate their contributions. Men are quick to say we are less than because our opinions or openness to choice is contrary. Be careful what you ask for.
I think your representation of my words and intention is exaggerated. Choices and freedom are clear yet each situation is different and each woman should have the right to make that choice.
I would rather we agree to disagree without taking the stance that I am somehow ego driven. I am speaking from experience. Are you? When was the last time you woke up female?
Use your influence and eloquence to talk to our brothers who don’t feel as strongly as you do about the sanctity of life, be it a woman or baby. Use your voice to mentor young men who see having sex as recreation, not procreation. Use your voice to tell men to take charge of the sexual act before it becomes a choice to make. Use your love to spread to those women who don’t have a man in their lives to say keep your child, love your child, or I’ll help you take care of your child.
Attacking truth just breeds ignorance and puts more people in harm’s way. My choice may not be yours but I will always give you the freedom to choose.
Thank you so much for taking the time to write me.
Your sister,
Blanche
From DSmith/Marine on February 12 in response —-
Mrs. Williams,
Thank you for your response. It warrants an attempt to listen to your angle more. I normally take a contrarian view to my ideals in order to appreciate the “other side”. Next time I here you on “Make it Plain”, I probably won’t turn the channel! I respect your point of view. I just feel strongly about everyone’s right to life. I agree that there are black men that are not accepting their parental roles; I am the product of this scenario. However, I was raised by a black woman who felt her freedom was tied to here ability to be a mother, not her right to terminate that responsibility mid stream after she and my dad decided to commit to an act that COULD create a life. I am familiar with the ladies that have endorsed your views. I may not have received their endorsements, but I live with three lesser known black women that remind me that my views as a father and husband aren’t’t cliché.
You’re right; choice is tied to freedom. However, freedom of choice comes at a cost. Every choice has what I call “either, or” options. For example, if we have unprotected sex, we could have fun and not make a baby, contract a disease, or procreate. Yes, men play a part and they too should be held accountable. However, I think encouraging black women to choose abortion could be exploited by those who desire the demise of our community. If our community can be targeted by alcohol companies, fast food restaurants, and negative images in the media, I think abortion in the black community can become a targeted market if our women communicate a desire for an alternative to adoption.
As I type this, I see an advertisement on BET concerning obesity in the African American community. Is this an example of the product of freedom of choice or a lack of alternatives? Do you think our ability to reproduce in the black community could be threatened? I think dialogue is good. Thank you for challenging me to think critically on this topic. I doubt I will be convinced to reverse my view, but I think dialogue will help us uncover solutions that help our community in the long term. Keep fighting!
Respectfully,
David
There is a choice that women have…TO KEEP THEIR PANTIES ON. If the man leaves her for this, she is better off without him. Pregnancies due to REAL RAPE (not the “statutory” kind, where a 16- year old “victim” pressures her “assailant” for sex, and gets knocked up after he gives her what she wants) are so few and far between that they can be written off as negligible. In a nutshell, a woman who keeps her panties on and says “No” is not very likely to have an unplanned pregnancy, while a promiscuous woman should’nt complain when she does….U PLAY, U PAY, as the saying goes.
Well, let’s just take a moment and discuss this “real rape” of which you speak. I believe the article touched on this point as well, but, your post begs the question, “who decides what ‘REAL RAPE’ is?” Many rapes are not reported and too often, are the result of incest.
Do you have any idea how long it takes such an accusation to wind its way through the legal system? If, in fact, it even gets off the ground?
So if we are to go by your standard, then by the time the courts decide that a woman has, in fact been the victim of a “REAL RAPE”, she’s already a mother, and has been violated twice. Once by her assailant, and again by having to endure carrying his child.
So unless you’ve got a better idea, I suggest we leave this idea of “REAL RAPE” off the table. What’s so wrong with giving women (ALL WOMEN) the choice of not having to go through that ordeal? It’s not a happy choice, but one made out of necessity.
As a teacher of young women, I must tell you that statuatory rape *IS* “real rape.” These young girls are not old enough mentally or physically to make these decisions, and many of the girls I teach have already had their minds warped about sex from having been abused sexually at a much younger age. Too many. I can’t tell you how many conversations I’ve had with my female students about sexual abuse. Many of them think it’s “okay” for a man to force them or pressure them to have sex even when they don’t want to. That is rape. I can speak from experience when I say that most of the “promiscuous” girls of which you speak have probably been abused. Is that not “REAL RAPE”?
This situation where the “victim pressures her assailant” is really a he-said, she-said, as you weren’t there in the room with them. And considering she’s the one who’s a minor, the older “assailant” should have had some damn sense himself. There’s a reason it’s illegal. There’s a reason it’s called RAPE.
U PLAY, U PAY? Oh most certainly. The woman always pays. Yet the men are strangely absent…so that can’t be applied equally can it? Yet, how is it fair that the woman, and ultimately the child pays for both?
That is one of the points that most strongly affected me in the article: the children ultimately suffer. Higher rates of poverty, illiteracy, drug addiction, etc. Not saying that all single mothers will wind up in that situation — but it increases the risk. So while it sounds good and fair and right to blame those dirty promiscuous girls who can’t keep their legs closed, the reality is that adopting this view, while denying women their right to chose, is really cutting of our noses to spite our faces.
Respectfully,
When the new healthcare bill is signed into law and the abortion option is still in there (as it will be) then the government will have the right to tell women of any color which babies will live and which will die.
If you have any decency you would protect yourself from getting pregnant and if you do get pregnant then you should have the right to choose. That is the law but with this new healthcare bill the politicians will have that choice.
Watch out people, this bill is going to kill babies and the elderly as the medicare/medicade portion is already bankrupt and there will soon be no one working to pay the taxes needed to support it and the government will have to kill us off to control the population.
Hitler did it . It can be done. Don’t think it cannot.
Freedom to choose doesn’t mean freedom to chose to kill my unborn!
Stop this healthcare bill and now!
I never thought about it like that.. very insightful. Thanks!
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