By Patricia Smith | 
In his immortal speech “I Have a Dream”, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. paints a disturbing scene of a nation that had compromised its fidelity to the Declaration of Independence; and therefore, to its citizens by not honoring this fact: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal….” This nation’s injustice was that she discriminated against a segment of the population simply because of the color of their skin through laws, court decisions and fostering an atmosphere of hostility. To remedy this, Dr. King righteously admonished her leaders to live up to their calling and to judge based on the content of a person’s character, not the color of his or her skin. This would be the path to fulfilling the dream for every American citizen.
Fast-forward five years after Dr. King’s death, and a more egregious act of infidelity took place: The rullings of Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton. The Roe decision ruled that abortions were lawful under the US Constitution up to the point at which the fetus becomes able to survive outside the womb, and Doe v. Bolton essentially legalized abortion up to and including birth. As a result of these two abominable decisions, the United States, once aga
in by rejecting parts of the Declaration of Independence, has broken her covenant with another segment of the population: unborn children.
She has ignored the reality that all men are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life. Although these two decisions took place after the death of King, he must have seen precursors to them as can be sensed in this quote: “The Negro cannot win as long as he is willing to sacrifice the lives of his children for comfort and safety. How can the ‘Dream’ survive if we murder the children? Every aborted baby is like a slave in the womb of his or her mother. The mother decides his or her fate.”
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, over 54 million unborn children have been aborted since 1973. Of that number, about 16 million were black babies. The Kansas Department of Health notes that approximately 1,708 blacks were aborted in the year of 2012. And in a poll conducted by the Alan Guttmacher Institute of 1,200 women, and of the reasons provided to them as a part of the poll, the two most common selections were “Having a baby would dramatically change my life” (74 percent) and “I can’t afford a baby now” (73 percnet). The woman’s health was noted by only 13 percent of the women, while the baby’s health was indicated by 12 percent. Only 14 percnet said a husband or partner wanted them to have an abortion. These figures are a stark representation of both women and men who have stopped dreaming and have given up on life.
At Black Americans for Life, we pursue the mandate to keep the dream alive by heeding Dr. King’s admonition through being a voice for the unborn. Our vision is to end abortion and restore the family and the Biblical institution of marriage to a place of dignity and respect in this culture. We endeavor to accomplish this by prayer, educating the community, and supporting the local church. Our three areas of focus are life-saving the lives of the unborn and valuing every person from conception to natural death; moral purity-calling those who are not married to a life of chastity, and marriage-supporting and affirming Biblical marriage. So stand with us as we encourage every United States citizen to let the ‘Dream’ live.
Patricia Smith is Chairman, Black Americans for Life and Available for speaking at special events or workshops.
Email: email from website
816-353-4113 (MO Right to Life/Black Americans for Life)
