A group of black pastors wrote a letter to Georgia Democratic Senate candidate Rev. Raphael Warnock denouncing his views on abortion and asking him to support life.
Fox News reported over the weekend that the pastors sent the letter as Georgia heads to two Senate runoff elections in early January after incumbent Sens. Kelly Loeffler (R) and David Perdue (R) failed to get more than 50% of the vote in November.
“Unborn Black, Brown and White lives are so much more than clumps of cells, burdensome inconveniences, or health problems,” the pastors wrote. “They are sacred human persons endowed by God with inalienable dignity and worth. We implore you to uphold the Biblical defense of life and to fight against the systemic racism of abortion.”
The pastors pointed out that Warnock has “gone on the record saying that you are a ‘pro-choice pastor’ who will ‘always fight for reproductive justice” and who has “publicly expressed your views that abortion is an exercise of ‘human agency and freedom’ that is fully consistent with your role as a shepherd of God’s people.”
The pastors, however, disagree with Warnock’s assertions, calling his statements “grave errors of judgement and a lapse in pastoral responsibility.”
“Abortion prematurely thwarts God’s providential and loving plan for a promising human life,” the pastors wrote. “And by terminating an innocent unborn life in the womb, abortion directly violates the seventh commandment: ‘Thou shalt not kill.’ God demands that every faithful Christian protect and uphold the sanctity of innocent human life, at every stage of life. Supporting abortion represents a serious abdication of and a transgression against that responsibility, just like the disrespect of the poor, the disabled, or the elderly.”
The pastors also knocked Warnock for suggesting abortion is “reproductive justice,” calling the phrase, “savvy marketing” that “has nothing to do either with reproduction or with justice.”
“Do American adults really need another public voice urging them to put their own short-term desires ahead of the needs of their children?” the pastors asked.
Further, the pastors run through numerous statistics showing the unique harm that abortion has on the black community.
“And then there is the uniquely devastating impact that abortion has on the Black communities you serve. The pro-abortion movement in America has been characterized by racism and white supremacy since its inception. And to this day, abortion continues to unequally and disproportionately harm Black lives, perpetuating systemic racism. Despite making up only 13% of the female population, Black women represent 36% of all abortions, and Black women are almost five times more likely than their white counterparts to receive an abortion. In some cities across the country, more Black children are aborted every year than are born alive,” the pastors wrote. “Can you in good conscience defend abortion, knowing that abortion kills 474 Black babies for every 1000 live births? Abortion decimates Black communities, disrupts Black families and inflicts untold harm on Black women. Black women and Black families need your advocacy; they need your protection, and they need your support. But they do not need Black pastors making excuses for the racism in the abortion industry. Killing Black lives, especially killing unborn Black lives, does nothing but brutalize and scar vulnerable Black communities who are already suffering so much.”
Among the letter’s signers is Alveda King, niece of Martin Luther King Jr.