Two black anti-abortion activists condemned Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D., N.Y.) for comparing the pro-life position to racism during an interview with the Des Moines Register last week.
"I think there's some issues that have such moral clarity that we have as a society decided that the other side is not acceptable. Imagine saying that it's okay to appoint a judge who's racist or anti-Semitic or homophobic. Asking someone to appoint someone who takes away basic human rights of any group of people in America—I don't think that those are political issues anymore," Gillibrand told the newspaper. "There is no moral equivalency when you come to racism, and I do not believe there is a moral equivalency when it comes to changing laws that deny women reproductive freedom."
Alveda King, the niece of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and director of African-American outreach for Priests for Life, told the Washington Free Beacon Gillibrand wants to protect the rights of only some women.
"She says she supports women's reproductive rights, but the little girls in the womb will grow up to be women after they're born," King said. "They're already little girls in the womb. She wants to protect a certain class of women, but then allow another class of women, of course, to be almost lynched." King added that Americans need to "embrace the sanctity of life regardless of political affiliation" and "embrace the civil rights of the unborn."
In an op-ed for Newsmax published earlier this week, King called abortion "one of the most heinous forms of racism that exists" and argued "a women's reproductive rights should never include the death of an innocent human being."
Star Parker, founder and president of the Center for Urban Renewal and Education, said Democrats need to be careful about "crying racism," especially given "the racial past of Planned Parenthood and the death of almost 20 million potential African-American humans at their hands, at the hands of abortionists."
"The 2020 election is going to come down to moral truth. Should our country be free or should our country be beholden to big government and abortion fanatics? And I believe that with the power of the internet, many African Americans are having second thoughts about the Democrat Party and if they have their interests at hand," Parker told the Free Beacon.
Nationally, the abortion rate for African-American mothers is higher than it is for other women, with 36 percent of all abortions in 2014 performed on black women, despite the fact black women are just 13 percent of the female population. The Wall Street Journal's Jason Riley noted last year that "thousands more black babies are aborted than born alive each year, and the abortion rate among black mothers is more than three times higher than it is for white mothers" in New York City.
Gallup polling shows a majority say abortion should be illegal in the second and third trimesters.