Atlanta, GA – Dr. Alveda King, Pastoral Associate of Priests for Life and niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., today said that racism and abortion are linked.

“Abortion and racism are both symptoms of a fundamental human error,” stated Dr. King.  “The error is thinking that when someone stands in the way of our wants, we can justify getting that person out of our lives.  Abortion and racism stem from the same poisonous root, selfishness.”

“Of course, to get someone out of our way, we have to come up with rationales for doing so,” added Dr. King.  “We create the deceptions that the other person is less important, less worthy, less human.  These pretenses help us feel a bit better about discriminating against someone because of his skin color or gestational age, but they’re still lies and our actions are still wrong.”

“The truth is that we are all humans belonging to only one race,” said Dr. King.  “Racial reconciliation can only mean that we reconcile to the truth that we are all one race of human beings created equal.  Even though we have ethnic distinctions, those distinctions do not separate us from the human race any more than do our stage of development or state of physical dependency.  We are all fully human.  When we face this truth, there is no justification for treating those who look different than us as lesser beings.  If we simply treat other people the way we’d like to be treated, racism, abortion, and other forms of inhumanity will be things of the past.”

Priests for Life is the nation's largest Catholic pro-life organization dedicated to ending abortion and euthanasia. For more information, visit www.priestsforlife.org.