Rachel Citak, legislative liaison for Citizens for Community Values in Columbus, Ohio, penned a scathing op-ed in The Columbus Dispatch highlighting the racism of abortion, an industry that largely targets minority communities.
“Today there is no greater threat to the personhood of people of color than legalized abortion,” Citak wrote, according to LifeNews. “I cannot think of another political cause that has done more to choke off the dreams, votes and futures of black Ohioans than the pro-abortion movement.”
Citak was responding to an op-ed penned by Democratic Ohio state Rep. Stephanie Howse in The Guardian, which made the dubious claim that “Christian-based white men” promoted a fetal heartbeat bill in the state to take “ownership and control of other people’s bodies.”
“I am a woman. I am black. And I couldn’t be more offended by the ‘stuff’ within Howse’s narrative,” said Citak. “We are literally killing ourselves from the inside out.”
According to Citak, the statistics show that black people in Ohio are overrepresented in the number of abortions for Ohioans, given that they make 12.3% of the state’s population and yet account for 40% of abortions.
“In the last 10 years, 104,660 unborn black babies were aborted in Ohio, she said, citing data from the state health department,” reports LifeNews. “What’s more, she said the nine abortion facilities in Ohio all are located in poor and minority areas. This is not unique to Ohio. In 2012, research by Protecting Black Life found that 79 percent of Planned Parenthood surgical abortion facilities are located within walking distance of minority neighborhoods.”
Citak called it “disturbing” to think that she could have easily been aborted as an infant, or perhaps even her own parents, whom she says were both “raised by single mothers living below the poverty line.”
“And yet, here I stand as a first-generation college graduate with a law degree,” Citak proclaimed. “How can we expect society to change its perceptions, systems and behavior to be more respectful and affirming of black lives if we insist on aborting our own children at these alarming rates? In fact, the system currently in place doesn’t just allow for abortion but actively promotes the taking of black lives.”
“I would hope that Howse and I could fight together against systematic oppression,” Citak continued. “But Howse’s fight is confined to outside the womb. Mine is expansive: from womb to tomb. My fight is for human rights, because without life, we have neither civil rights nor a voice to choose.”
With her op-ed, Rachel Citak joins a chorus of other black pro-life activists who have proudly defended the rights of the unborn on racial grounds. Most recently, a black pro-life Democrat in Louisiana, state Rep. Katrina Jackson, referred to the institution as “genocide.”
“I think it mitigates our race’s voting power, it hurts our race’s power in the census. I really consider it to be modern-day genocide,” said Jackson.
Other black female state representatives, such as June Franklin (D-IA), have spoken out about abortion historically being used to target black Americans. “For blacks and the poor who want abortions and can’t afford one … is the phoniest and most preposterous argument of all.” she said. “Because I represent the inner-city where the majority of Blacks and poor live and I challenge anyone here to show me a waiting line of either Blacks or poor whites who are wanting an abortion.”