08 Oct 2013 NAACP Tries, Fails to Legalize Race-, Sex-Selection Abortion in Arizona

Old book and gavel on wooden desk

An attempt by an NAACP affiliate to overturn a ban on race and sex-based abortions was thwarted.

A white federal judge appointed by President George W. Bush blunted a lawsuit filed on behalf of a local NAACP chapter seeking to invalidate a law prohibiting the killing of unborn black babies because they are black (or, similarly, if they are some other race or gender perceived to be undesirable).

Shall I put it out there one more time?  The NAACP and an Asian special interest group, represented by the ACLU, opposed a law enacted to prevent abortions motivated by an animus toward the race or sex of the baby.

It’s hard to wrap your mind around, isn’t it?

In 2011, Arizona enacted a law that made it a felony for a doctor to knowingly perform an abortion if it is known that the mother is being coerced into the procedure because of the race or the sex of the unborn baby.  According to the ACLU lawsuit, brought on behalf of the Maricopa County chapter of the NAACP and the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum, the law should have been thrown out because it is “[b]ased on nothing more than invidious stereotypes about the reasons minority women seek abortion care.”

But Judge David Campbell seemed to feel it was only the challengers who were dealing in stereotypes.  He said their lawsuit did not prove that those affiliated with the NAACP and the Forum were denied equal treatment because abortions could not be performed under duress due to forced abortions based on race or sex-selection criteria being prohibited.

As Judge Campbell pointed out in his ruling to dismiss the case:

They do not assert that their members have been or will be denied abortions or other medicare, nor that their members have been or will be threatened with enforcement or liability under the act.

Pointing out the oddity of racial special interest groups opposing abortions motivated solely on race and gender, Casey Maddox, a lawyer for the Alliance Defending Freedom (which represented the law’s legislative sponsor, Representative Steve Montenegro), said:

There is nothing medically necessary or constitutionally protected about an abortion that is committed on the basis of sex or race, and the NAACP should be opposed to such a practice more than anyone.

Project 21 member Derryck Green agrees, and he is praising Judge Campbell on his ruling.  Derryck notes that the NAACP and the Forum were wrongheaded from the start in opposing a law meant to protect women and minorities.

Derryck, who already wrote about the lawsuit when it was first filed, now says:

Arizona is the only state protecting the preborn from race-based abortions.  It also protects against abortions motivated solely on the sex of the preborn baby.

Several months ago, the Arizona chapter of the ACLU — representing the NAACP chapter in Arizona’s Maricopa County and the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum — sued the state to overturn the law.

“The Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass Prenatal Non-Discrimination Act of 2011” makes it illegal for any person to knowingly perform an abortion based on the race or sex of the preborn child or the parent.  The law also prohibits any person from coercing or pressuring a woman into having an abortion as a result of the expected race or sex of the preborn child.  Lastly, the Arizona law requires that any woman seeking an abortion sign an affidavit confirming the abortion isn’t because of the race and or sex of the preborn child.

The lawsuit claimed that the law was discriminatory because it singled out and stigmatized black and Asian women, claiming the law violated the rights of women that are protected under the Equal Protection Clause that is found in the 14th Amendment.

Far from being discriminatory, the law extends protections not only to preborn children, but also to those women whose families might emotionally or physically attempt to manipulate a pregnant woman into having an abortion because of racial or sexual animus.

Thank God that U.S. District Judge David G. Campbell ruled that the two parties who brought the suit didn’t have legal standing to do so and tossed out the lawsuit.  Unfortunately, he reportedly did not call the plaintiffs foolish.

In any case, this ruling means that the law will continue to be enforced, protecting the lives of preborn children and the mothers who carry them from potential race and gender-based hostility.

Obviously, I still maintain that the law — as it is written — doesn’t discriminate against any person or group precisely because it’s equally applicable to everyone.  No one can perform or receive a race or sex-based abortion based on their race or sex; it criminalizes all who seek to do so.  If the law had specifically singled out black or Asian women, it would be discriminatory and thus be unconstitutional.

That the NAACP would involve itself in a lawsuit against a statute seeking to minimize racial violence in the form of race-based abortions is stunning.

By participating in this lawsuit, it shows — among other things — that the NAACP, at least at this local chapter, believes more race and sex-based abortions qualify as ending discrimination.

Further, that they would sue a state to rescind a law that would have the obvious result of increasing the abortions that blacks have, particularly in light of the disproportionally high numbers of abortions by blacks relative to their population, once again presents a clear demonstration of the moral confusion or immorality I believe plagues the NAACP.

The president of the Maricopa County NAACP is the Reverend Oscar Tillman.  Tillman is also the national NAACP’s National Board Vice President.  A so-called reverend, a so-called man of God, is representing an alleged civil rights group that advocates for more abortion.  With these kinds of reverends as leaders in the black community, it is no wonder things are so bad.

In Luke 17, Jesus says that things that cause people to sin are bound to come — but woe unto that person through whom they come.

To the NAACP and the Reverend Oscar Tillman… woe indeed.