To the editor:
I was disappointed that the Catholic Courier’s article (“Local black Catholics inspired at national congress,” April 4) on the commission’s social justice efforts for the National Black Catholic Congress Pastoral Plan of Action never mentioned protecting pre-born children, which was part of the plan.
In the past there have been as much as 180,000 African-American pre-born lives destroyed EACH YEAR through abortions. It has been estimated that since 1990 the African American Community has lost more than 10 million children to abortion. In New York City it was reported that 41 percent of all pregnancies end in abortions, but 61 percent of African American women’s pregnancies end in abortions. About 13 percent of American women are African-American, but they submit to over 28 percent of the abortions. This does not take into account all the women whose lives have been wounded and devastated by their abortion, like the ones who I have seen over the years in Project Rachel.
We have over 2,000 pre-born lives taken every day in the United States and over 125,000 pre-born lives destroyed EACH DAY in our world, and yet there is almost a silence or a lack of prioritizing around this immense unjust loss of human life. I believe this horrendous situation goes almost unnoticed daily in our country and in our world because for too many people abortion is merely a concept, not the tragic loss of lives as it really is. I am glad the NCCB Pastoral Plan recognized its importance.
Father Jim Hewes
Greece
Tags: Black Catholics
