**Today Only!**

I interrupt my regularly-scheduled blog post to bring you this news:

Today, March 18, 2011, you can view free of charge "Silent Choices", a documentary elucidating the struggles of black women and the black community in talking about abortion.

This is a very important topic to me, because a) it's largely ignored by the media, even when abortion itself is a topic, and b) I've witnessed the phenomena of the silent abortion and the coerced motherhood in my own community. It's increasingly relevant, too, as black communities are coming under attack by anti-choice groups (remember Sparky's post?), but community members themselves are unheard thanks to internalized disenfranchisement promulgated by evangelicals and holier-than-thous.

No more! I've only watched 10 minutes of this so far, but I am glued to the screen. All women should watch this, and learn to appreciate the sociocultural barriers that black women face when dealing with reproductive health issues. It will help you become better case managers, better clinic directors, better doctors, better counselors, better people!

"Silent Choices" normally costs $4.99, but today only you can view it for free. Please do!

"I understand the sentiment behind it, the idea that abortion has been a central focus of white women's organizing for reproductive freedom, and black women and other women of color have fought for a broader understanding of reproductive freedom. But abortion is part of a broad complex of issues and needs and services that are required for all women to have complete control over their reproductive decision-making and for there to be complete reproductive justice in this country." - Dorothy Roberts, Northwestern University School of Law.

(Special thanks to Vegan Vagina, for bringing this to the Abortioneers' attention!)

Racist Anti-Abortion Bill Boards, Again?

Many of us heard about these billboards popping up in Georgia last year, Anti Anti, , Vulva Flower and I wrote about the racist bill boards reading "Black Children are an Endangered Species. I had not heard about any more of these offensive bill boards until now. The Life Always group recently unveiled another equally offensive bill board last week. However, there is victory according to this blog the Women Of Color Policy Network announced that the bill board would be taken down immediately.

This newer bill board reads "The Most Dangerous Place for An African American is in the Womb" This message is so appalling I almost don't know how to respond. Do the folks who put this together take modern day manifestations of racism into account at all? Black men and people are still routinely harassed by police for simply being black, Black people are still being incarcerated at an insanely high rate for non-violent crime, and even Wikipedia knows that race and poverty are linked, poverty rates are much higher for people of color than white folks. So the point is if the people funding these bill boards, Life Always, are so concerned for the well being of black folks it sounds like there are a lot of ways redirect there energies and actually work towards dismantling systemic racism in the United States, its rampant.

I'm glad this bill board was taken down. I have heard rumors that similar bill boards were removed in Atlanta but remain up in other parts of rural Georgia. A writer from Colorlines identifies several reasons she hates these bill boards but makes the point that they have motivated women black women to come together across class and religious lines. I also hate these bill boards and I hope that blatant racist disrespect of black womens' lives and choices motivates women to voice their support for reproductive rights and choice.