CNSNews.com) – The niece of Martin Luther King Jr., Alveda King, said on Thursday that the rallying call of protestors in recent weeks that “black lives matter” should not only refer to the treatment of blacks by police but also to black babies in their mothers’ wombs.
“We hear a popular hashtag today ‘black lives matter,’” the pro-life advocate said at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. “But certainly that is from conception until natural death. The babies in the womb definitely matter as well.”
King, who is pastoral associate and director of African-American outreach for Priests for Life and a spokesperson for the Silent No More Awareness Campaign, spoke at the launch of a campaign aimed at highlighting that abortion impacts the lives of many more than just the mother and aborted child.
The “Healing the Shock Waves of Abortion” campaign addresses how abortion also affects fathers, grandparents, siblings and even those who work in the abortion industry.
King said while we are all part of the “human family” regardless of race, African Americans are especially hit hard by abortion.
“Nationwide, while African Americans make up just 13 percent of the population, black women have 36 percent of the abortions performed in this country,” she said.
“Since Roe versus Wade [the U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized the procedure] in 1973, 16 million black babies have been killed by abortion.
“In New York City alone, the most dangerous place for a black child is in the womb,” King said.
As reported earlier by CNSNews.com, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of 76,251 abortions reported in New York City in 2011, 35,188 (46.1 percent) were black babies.
Asked by CNSNews.com how the “black lives matter” slogan relates to the prolife movement, King said, as was the case with her uncle, non-violent resolution of race-related conflicts is the answer and that abortion does not fit that narrative.
“We believe that abortion is a very violent act in the womb of the woman – hurting another human being,” said King, who shared her own story about having two abortions and a miscarriage related to those abortions as the inspiration for her pro-life advocacy.
Father Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, said the new campaign aims to offer healing to everyone touched by abortion.
“There is nothing that harms the family more deeply than abortion,” he said.