Elizabeth Washington
Day 1 – Abortion Statistic in News Paper
Somebody runs advertisements about abortion statistics in newspapers.
Elizabeth! Elizabeth! Can you believe this! Can you believe this in the newspaper? In our newspaper!
What is it, dad? I have not looked at the newspaper this morning.
Thomas slams the morning paper down onto the table so violently that the dishes rattle against one another. He thrusts it toward Elizabeth, his daughter, and she recoils in surprise at the force of his actions. His eyes are intense as his voice changes pitch, “Well, just look here.”
A page-size advertisement proclaims the sickening statistics of abortion and how many whites and blacks have been killed by abortions since 1973.
Thomas passes the folded newspaper to Elizabeth. He watches his daughter unfold it and look at the title, “Stop Abortions Because They Are Killing You.” Elizabeth shakes her head and glances down at the article looking at the numbers. The first one that jumps out at her is 61 million abortions in the United States.
61 million abortions in the United States
Daddy, can you believe it? 61 million abortions in the United States. His eyes widen in disbelief. How? How can there be that many? She stares at him, searching for an answer. His shoulders slump, and he mumbles a hopeless, “I don’t know?”
Thomas says, “That is an over-exaggeration of the real numbers. Many of those abortions are related to illnesses and rape and other reasons.”
Mary looks at her father and shakes her head. She glances down, and she is aghast. According to the site, the number of black abortions is 18 million. Next, the number of black citizens in the United States is 43 million. The article said that 30 percent of the black population has been aborted over the past 50 years. What? Mary wanted to cry. She was horrified at the magnitude of the black abortions. Her mind raced with misery when she realized that if this was true, it meant that almost 1 out of 3 babies with black skin were never given a chance to live.
18 million black baby abortions in the United States
She wondered if this was an accurate number. A book was referenced at the bottom of the newspaper advertisement, Abortion Facts, by Conrad Birmingham. There would be 42% more black citizens today. The number of black citizens would have doubled in the last half-century. Unbelievable!
42 percent more black United States citizens today or 30 percent more
If it was a valid number, the black leaders in our society would stop abortion. They would not allow this to go on. They would not allow this to continue day after day. This would kill their future generations.
Where are the activist, bloggers, influencers, past President and his wife, celebrities, movie stars, sports athletes, musicians, politicians, newscasters, business people, and pastors? Why do they not stop this? The people who spoke up for us, the ones who made us feel powerful and inspired, where are they now?
She eyeballed her father, Reverend Thomas Washington, her voice shaking with rage as she hissed, “Why? Why does this keep happening to us, to our people?” She could see the pain in her father’s eyes, almost feel his anguish like a tangible force in the air, and the questions gnawed at her.
Thomas calls Elizabeth child and says, “Black Christian leaders, we must look at the injustices placed upon us. We have to look at poverty and what is causing that poverty. We have to fight the policies and causes from the past, present, and future to change our predicament.”
“We understand the theological basis that every baby is a child of God and is made in His image, but there is more than that here. We must now look at the big picture and what is best for the black population.
Honey, black people as a group do not want or support abortions. Black women are more likely to have abortions than women of other races. Several factors may contribute to this, including disparities in healthcare access, socioeconomic status, and historical patterns of discrimination and marginalization. It is essential to recognize that these factors can have complex and multifaceted effects on the reproductive choices and experiences of individuals and communities. The dissonance between black women’s lived realities and their lived experiences makes it seem like abortion is more available to them than other women when in fact, their rates are higher because they need the procedure more often.
You have to empathize with the black women and the unprecedented situation they find themselves in.
Reverend Washington says, “but it was more complicated than people dying. Women’s rights are involved, and too many kids to take care of. You know, Elizabeth, what you would have done if you got pregnant?”
She listened to her father, and she knew women who had abortions. She understood the mother’s predicaments. Abortion was a way to make women’s life easier. If they got pregnant, they could get an abortion for any reason – do not want a child right now, poverty, no husband, too many kids already, medical reason, rape, incest, or any number of reasons or excuses. When she was younger, she would have had an abortion if she got pregnant and she was not ready for a child. She took precautions with birth control measures and restraint. She was lucky that she never took a risk those few times, but it could have happened very easily.
And that was another reason she joined the Marines. She couldn’t bear to stay in Baltimore and watch no one around her escape from poverty and streets of no promise. She wanted to do something and to have a challenge.
When she started her career in the military, she was glad to be a female Marine. She was happy to be one of the Marine’s “Few and the Proud.” She was proud to wear the uniform and to fight for her country. She was proud of the Marine Corps and the Marines who served in the Corps. She loved the Corps and believed that it loved her back, in a way. It didn’t matter what anyone said or what the enemy did: she would always be a Marine.
She joined the Marine Corps because she wanted to be a warrior and not a nurse or a police officer, or a firefighter. She saw them all as losers because they stayed in Baltimore, and it was not about the job or the pay. It was about being a warrior. It was about honor and pride and fighting for her country and fighting for her fellow Marines.
The Marines gave her a challenge and much more. It was not that she had not had worth before, but she was forced to find worth in herself, to discover goals and a desire to achieve them. She felt successful as an enlisted woman. She could take pride in her accomplishments and share her success with those she loved. The feeling of success was infectious and brought joy into her life that had been lacking for so long. The sense of pride from the Marines gave her a reason to keep striving.
