Though the schedule for the Freedom Federation’s faith-based conference in Lynchburg, Va., held over the weekend, was finalized long before Congress agreed on a temporary budget deal that did not, in the end, defund Planned Parenthood and end Title X funding for family planning services, the fervor for doing just that was far from dead during a panel discussion titled “Abortion: Ending the Holocaust and Defunding Planned Parenthood.”
Among three panelists invited to speak out against Planned Parenthood on Saturday’s panel, the Rev. Johnny Hunter — a pastor of worship at the Cliffdale Community Church and the national director of Life Education and Resource Network (LEARN, Inc.), both based in Fayetteville, N.C. — punched the podium with vigor and told the mostly white audience sitting in the Thomas Road Baptist Church’s Pate Chapel that abortion is a white construct aimed exclusively at African-Americans.
“As for the white community, white babies are just collateral damage,” Hunter said. “If blacks stop giving to the abortion industry, it will come to an end in one to two years.
The black genocide argument, which is furtively embraced by Hunter’s LEARN, has permeated the abortion debate since the Supreme Court upheld Roe v. Wade in 1973. But in the current political climate, the movement has exploded in the way of advertising and legislation, and is increasingly posited as a civil rights issue from the Christian conservative right, and particularly by black conservative groups.
Hunter — who is on the board of advisers for the Virginia Christian Alliance, which recently criticized Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell’s anti-abortion rights amendment to ban insurance coverage of abortion in state health exchanges because it included exceptions for cases of rape, incest and the life of the mother – said the Dred Scott v. Sanford decision was “the same exact thing” as Roe v. Wade.
“Dred Scott was a 7-2 decision; Roe v. Wade was also 7-2,” Hunter told The American Independent after the panel discussion, when asked to outline his reasoning on the Dred Scott comparison. “[Roe v. Wade] states the child in the womb is not protected because it is not a person.”
In the 1857 Dred Scott decision, the Supreme Court’s majority opinion struck down Scott’s claim that he was a free man, arguing that slaves were not U.S. citizens and thus could not sue in federal courts; additionally, the court found that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional because Congress did not have the authority to ban slavery in the territories. The decision was overturned by the 13th and 14th constitutional amendments, which is akin to what anti-abortion rights activists are hoping to do with personhood amendments and heartbeat bills.
Hunter said that unborn babies, just like slaves, are not granted the rights of U.S. citizens because of a Supreme Court ruling. But what makes the court cases nearly identical, he asserted, is their racist agendas.
“Abortion is all about African-Americans,” Hunter said, claiming, like many, that abortion clinics are disproportionately located in African-American communities — amping up disproportionate statistics.
When asked by the Independent if abortion in America is exclusively targeted at African-Americans, Hunter agreed with the idea and again said aborted “whites are collateral damage.”
He clarified that abortion is the primary enemy, but that Planned Parenthood is his group’s main target because it is the largest abortion provider in the U.S.
Watch Hunter encouraging Awakening attendants to boycott Planned Parenthood:
Asked if he thinks Hispanic babies are also collateral damage, Hunter said he does not. Asked then to explain where Hispanics fit into the eugenics/abortion/genocide position, he said, “Hispanics are another story” –- though he would not go into what that story is.
Are aborted Asian babies collateral damage?
“Well, it’s complicated,” Hunter said and wouldn’t expand further.
As for African-Americans’ moral agency and ability to reason, Hunter said they have been “hoodwinked” and “bamboozled” by Planned Parenthood, which he said has fostered a notion that abortion is there to help the black community — but really, it’s there to wipe it out.
Check out some of LEARN’s comparisons of abortion to the Jewish Holocaust and slavery here.
Watch Hunter telling Christian conservatives to stop being colorblind:
Watch Hunter telling the Awakening audience to employ the right “moves” if they want to defund Planned Parenthood and ban abortion:
Read The Independent’s full coverage of The Awakening 2011 conference.
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