(Photo by Brian Payne)
MADISON — Many pro-choice advocates argue for abortion to be “safe, legal, and rare.”
But with the number of people killed by abortion in the United States topping 48 million since 1973, even the argument of “rare” is becoming less certain of an achievement. In 2008 alone, several hundred thousand more than the equivalent of the state of Rhode Island — the 43rd most populous state — was aborted.
Hidden within these numbers is the statistical fact that, proportionally, the hardest-hit populations in the U.S. are minorities, and in particular blacks. According to cumulated statistics, more African American children have been killed by abortions since 1973 than the total number of African American deaths from AIDS, violent crimes, accidents, cancer, and heart disease combined.
Ryan Bomberger, the co-founder of the Radiance Foundation, spoke in Madison on the need for greater awareness of this problem. His multimedia presentation at the Bishop O’Connor Center on March 23, “Human Dignity: The Power of Possibility,” was sponsored by Pro-Life Wisconsin, Vigil for Life of Madison, and the Diocese of Madison.
Bomberger, who described himself as half white and half black — “I like to say it just makes me an American, not a hyphenated American,” he said — is an adoptee and adoptive father. For more than a decade, this Emmy® Award-winning creative professional has advocated for adoption and foster care and speaks nationally about his own adoption story and the true nature of the abortion industry.
Behind the lies
Those who make a profit on the abortion industry are not interested in revealing the truth, Bomberger said.
Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest provider of abortions, has recently been targeted for budget cuts on a national and state-wide scale and has been defending its reputation by saying it provides more than just abortions. But they do not perform mammograms (they only refer them), they do few adoption referrals, and the numbers for prenatal care is less than 8,000, whereas abortion and its counterpart, birth control, make up the bulk of its business.
“When you look at why abortion is elevated above all else, when you take their average of $625 per abortion, and the 332,278 abortions they perform,” Bomberger said, “that brings in a whopping $200 million in revenue, which in their own annual report, resulted in a 63.4 million profit for a non-profit that gets one-third of its budget from us. That makes you mad.
“332,278 abortions in 2009, and how many adoption referrals? 977. So when you hear pro-choice, ‘choice’ is a complete sham. It’s a wonderful little buzzword, but in actuality, in practice, what does it mean?” he said.
As to the idea of abortion being a “teen” thing, the most abortions occur in the 20- to 24-aged category. And it’s not a poverty issue, either — in Wisconsin, 46 percent of women having abortions have college or graduate degrees, Bomberger said.
“Often times, you hear all the extreme examples,” he said. “The extreme examples are always the scapegoat, they’re always the reason why abortion has to be legal. But when you look at it, 98 percent of all abortions are due to non-medical, non-life threatening, non-rape or -incest issues. They’re personal choices, because of personal choices that happened before life unplanned.”
Reaching people
The Radiance Foundation, in its triple-pronged effort of educating, illuminating, and motivating people, does a significant portion of educating people on the truth of abortion by displaying billboards.
Their first billboard, which read “Black children are an endangered species,” was the first in this effort to bring the truth about abortion to as many people as possible. It directed people to their Web site toomanyaborted.com which has detailed, statistical, and study-cited information on the campaign.
“This billboard was our way of illuminating, just like a breast cancer awareness campaign,” Bomberger said. “It doesn’t discriminate against men, but it highlights who is most impacted — that’s women.”
So far, billboards have been erected both in Milwaukee and Madison. In Milwaukee, 13 billboards display the taglines “Black Children Are in Danger” and “Black and Beautiful,” emphasizing the message that black children are more endangered by death by abortion than any other demographic in America.
“Abortion is not a true choice for the unborn, for women or for men. Abortion providers prey on those who feel they have no choice, and this campaign highlights this daily reality,” said Virginia Zignego, communications director of Pro-Life Wisconsin, in their release when the Madison board was erected.
Affecting a population
The focus on abortion’s impact on the black population is motivated by statistics that show that African Americans are the most likely to receive an abortion.
According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention abortion surveillance summaries, black women accounted for 36.5 percent of abortions nationally, despite accounting for only 13 percent of the female population.
Numbers like this only echo statistics in urban areas such as New York City, which is battling its own 41 percent abortion rate. According to the city’s 2009 Vital Statistics data set, blacks and Hispanics account for 79 percent of all abortions in New York City, a percentage that has held steady for years. Six out of every 10 pregnancies to black women and nearly two out of every 10 to Hispanic women ends in abortion.
And this isn’t only about urban areas. In Wisconsin, 24 percent of abortions are performed on African-Americans, according to Department of Health Services statistics. For a state in which approximately six out of every 100 persons is black, that’s four times their representation.
These discrepancies have led to a call of “black genocide” and eugenics. The battle has become so heated that a recent billboard erected in New York City with the tagline “The most dangerous place for an African-American baby is in the womb” was removed due to threats of violence by pro-abortion advocates.
The goal of the billboard, sponsored by national pro-life advertising organization Life Always, was to draw awareness to the great toll taken on minority populations. The group is one of many organizations, including the Knights of Columbus and the Radiance Foundation, that have turned to billboard advertising as a way of educating people on the impact of abortion.
Building a culture of life
But the point of the campaign by the Radiance Foundation goes beyond exposing the lies to building up a culture of life.
As part of its motivating effort, its founders speak nationally on the subject and the foundation also honors people with its Shine Award for bringing hope and healing to others in their community through building strong character.
“We want to motivate people to not only think about their own beautiful intrinsic value, but act on that,” Bomberger said. “So not only making changes in their own personal lives, but also affecting the community around them.”
The entire campaign is centered around elevating humans by revealing and educating people on the truth.
“The whole thing is about the beauty of possibility,” Bomberger said. “One thing we talk about, when life is emphasized, when life-affirming options are the ones that are embraced, this is what can result — the possibility of healing.”
For more information on the Radiance Foundation, visit radiancefoundation.org For more on the truth of abortion, and in particular the truth of the state of abortions in Wisconsin, visit toomanyaborted.com