Black pastors in Ohio are joining other faith leaders in the fight to beat back an abortion rights amendment on the state’s November ballot, an issue that the pastors describe as life or death.
An open letter from 110 Black religious and community figures cited a newly released report from the Ohio Department of Health showing that 48% of induced abortions in 2022 were performed on Black women. Just 13% of the state’s population is Black.
“What is the No. 1 killer of us? It’s not the police,” Bishop Patrick L. Wooden Sr. said in a video posted this week by the pro-life group Protect Women Ohio. “It’s abortion.”
The hard-hitting message comes a month before Ohio voters will decide whether to add abortion rights to the state constitution by approving Issue 1, the latest front in the pro-choice movement’s campaign to eradicate restrictions on abortion access after the fall of Roe v. Wade.
“This is not a party-line vote, nor is Issue 1 a Republican or Democrat issue,” said Brian Williams, pastor of the Hope City House of Prayer in Columbus, who read the open letter in a video posted Wednesday. “This is a moral issue, and for the Black community in particular, it is a life-or-death matter.”
Bishop Wooden, who leads the Upper Room Church of God in Christ in Raleigh, North Carolina, warned that “we are targeted for extinction” in a speech at the Columbus Christian Center.
Issue 1 would prevent the state from enacting restrictions on abortion before viability, or about 24 weeks gestation, and then allow the physician to decide whether to approve an abortion after viability.
Ohioans for Reproductive Freedom said the amendment is needed to guarantee “abortion free from government interference” and bar “draconian” limits. Pro-life groups say the measure would essentially put abortion doctors in charge of whether to perform abortions.
Both sides agree that Black women account for a disproportionate share of abortions. The pro-choice Guttmacher Institute said in 2008 that the U.S. abortion rate for Black women is nearly five times the White abortion rate.
In their letter, the Black faith leaders accused abortion providers of targeting their communities by locating clinics in minority neighborhoods, citing the pro-eugenics views of Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger.
“We can only hope the abortion industry will one day be held to account for its dark history and depraved legacy, but in the meantime, we cannot allow it to continue pushing an agenda driven by racism and greed,” said the letter. “Unfortunately, Issue 1 does just that.”
Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider, denounced Sanger’s eugenicist views at the height of the Black Lives Matter protests in July 2020 and denied promoting “Black genocide.”
“We support people to make their own decisions to control their own lives and futures,” Planned Parenthood North Central States said in the 2020 statement. “This autonomy is especially important for Black people and all people of color in this country, who face structural racism, including barriers to sexual and reproductive freedom and health care.”
The Ohio data showed that Black women received 48.4% of abortions in 2022, more than White women, who accounted for 43.1%. White residents make up 81% of the state’s population.
Those in other racial categories — American Indian, Asian/Pacific Islander and multiracial — received less than 10% of abortions combined.
The Black pastors joined conservative religious leaders and faith-based groups opposing Issue 1, including the Catholic Conference of Ohio, the Catholic Bishops of Ohio, and the Center for Christian Virtue, the state’s largest Christian public policy organization.
Liberal faith communities supporting Issue 1 include: the United Church of Christ, Unitarian Universalist Justice Ohio, and the Greater Cincinnati Board of Rabbis.
Mr. Williams cited Psalm 139:13-14, which begins: “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.”
“Our faith sustains us every day, and it must now spur us on to defeat this amendment and save countless Black lives in doing so,” he said. “Together, we must send a message to the abortion industry by stopping Issue 1. We must end the targeting of Black babies and instead promote a culture of life.”
Ohio’s Issue 1, which also would guarantee access to contraception, will appear on the Nov. 7 state ballot along with a marijuana-legalization initiative. Early in-person voting begins Oct. 11.
In August, voters defeated a ballot measure also called Issue 1 that would have required a 60% majority to amend the state constitution, handing a win to pro-choice groups ahead of the abortion-rights ballot fight.
Ohio currently allows abortion up until 21 weeks and six days gestation and then afterward to save the woman’s life or protect her from serious physical harm. A heartbeat bill signed by the governor in 2019, which would ban most abortions after 6-8 weeks gestation, is pending in the courts.
