For Immediate Release: February 6, 2020
Contact: Rev. Kinzer Pointer
Buffalo, NY—“59 black babies are aborted for every 100 born in Buffalo every year compared to 18 white babies aborted to 100 white babies born,” says New York Pastor for Life Coalition leader Rev. William Gillison. “The black community is no longer replacing itself.”
Mt. Olive Baptist Church at 701 E Delavan Ave, Buffalo, NY 14215 on February 6th at 2:00 P.M. the New York Pastors for Life campaign will be revealing its media blitz. The campaign is designed to sound the alarm among the Black and Hispanic communities. 37% all black pregnancies end in abortion. Rev. Sam Rivera Jr., President of the Hispanic Pastors’ Association expressed further concern stating, “The Hispanic community is not far behind the Black community with 1 in 5 pregnancies ending in abortion.”
The New York Pastors for Life media campaign is hard-hitting televised messaging designed by members of the Black community to directly address the Black and Hispanic abortion disparity. “Abortion is having a devastating impact on the ability of our communities to flourish,” says, Ayesha Kruetz of the Frederick Douglas Foundation of New York. She goes on to say, “It all comes down to our unwillingness as a society to protect the personhood of Black and Hispanic preborn boys and girls. Abortion is a concern for the Frederick Douglas Foundation. It represents the same root problem that permitted the enslavement of Blacks in the U.S.—refusing to acknowledge the personhood and therefore the ‘inalienable’ rights of the black man. That is exactly what the Supreme Court did in Roe vs Wade. And it is decimating our people. In 1787 we asked, ‘AM I NOT A MAN AND A BROTHER?’ and we overcame. The time has come for the Blacks and Hispanics of Buffalo to raise our voice for the future of our people and ask, “Am I Not a Child?”
The following is an excerpt of the personhood statement that the Buffalo community of leaders have signed: “A person is an organism with unique human DNA governing his or her own maturation from conception to natural death…redefining personhood is arbitrary at best and mercenary at worst. The black community understands well what happens when a small group of people decides to force their narrow definition of personhood upon society: slavery and death. Abortion represents one small group of people deciding that boys and girls in the womb are not people.”
Rev. Arthur Ward of St Bartholomew’s Anglican Church summarized, “This is not a political issue. This is a human one. We must protect the personhood of all humans at every stage of maturity. May God help us overcome this inhumanity.”
New York Pastors for Life is a media campaign and an initiative of local community leaders which exists to educate the community toward an understanding of the personhood of all, especially the preborn girl and boy. One hope of this effort is to continue laying a foundation for a personhood amendment to the constitution of New York State recognizing the equality of all humans under the law without arbitrary qualifications.