Prometheus 6

So what did Black folks get when white folks took over the "Democrats were the racists before the Civil War" meme from Deroy Murdock?

We got anti-abortion "crisis pregnancy centers."

Hoye has bigger plans, hoping to eventually open chapters of Issues4Life across the country as a way to create a "one-stop shopping place" where black leaders, particularly pastors, will be able to get the information they need to teach others about the problem....

The Rev. Amos Brown, president of the San Francisco branch of the NAACP, said that abortion is not a civil rights issue and that he has no plans to take part in the events.

Berkeley preacher calls for blacks to fight abortion
Leslie Fulbright, Chronicle Staff Writer
Monday, January 7, 2008

Saying they are faced with a civil rights crisis that demands immediate attention, African American anti-abortion advocates will hold three events in the Bay Area later this month in an aggressive push to combat the high number of abortions among black women.

"The abortion issue is huge. It is the Darfur of America," and it's time to educate the public about it, said Walter Hoye, a Berkeley preacher who founded the Issues4Life Foundation, a recently formed Union City-based organization intent on drafting more African Americans into the fight against abortion.

Issues4Life has organized the events to coincide with the Jan. 22 anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Jan. 18 and Black History Month in February. All three events will feature Alveda King, the niece of the slain civil rights leader.

A two-mile Walk for Life will be held in Oakland and a conference will be hosted at a Berkeley church Jan. 18. The following day, a walk similar to the one in Oakland will take place in San Francisco.

But Hoye has bigger plans, hoping to eventually open chapters of Issues4Life across the country as a way to create a "one-stop shopping place" where black leaders, particularly pastors, will be able to get the information they need to teach others about the problem.

"We want to create opportunities to dialogue on issues concerning life, and abortion is the leading cause of death in the African American community," Hoye said. "It is a moral issue as far as the church is concerned, and we want to strengthen the African American leadership.

"We have always taught abstinence. That is Christianity 101. But when people decide to have sex outside of marriage, we want to do other things like post-abortion counseling, anger management, day care and recovery programs."

Hoye said he sees a problem with abortion clinics located in black neighborhoods and says people should be just as concerned with them as they are homicides, liquor stores and genocide in Africa.

But not everyone agrees with him.

The Rev. Amos Brown, president of the San Francisco branch of the NAACP, said that abortion is not a civil rights issue and that he has no plans to take part in the events.

"San Francisco's top civil rights issues are education, economic empowerment and political engagement," Brown said. "African American students are behind every ethnic group in this city academically. People who are learned and informed do the right thing. If not, they engage in destructive behavior.

"These pro-life people are demagogues and ideologues and are not receiving overwhelming support from the black community."