As most of you know, Troy Davis was executed this week after spending over two decades on death row. In spite of the vast amount of evidence that he was innocent. And the vast amount of public outcry against his execution. Students from Howard University were arrested for protesting outside the White House (where apparently it’s okay to celebrate the killing of Osama bin Laden at 2 AM but not cool to protest the death of a wrongly-convicted man). But one group was absent from this effort:the pro-life movement.
So I’m calling for them to change their name. Instead of pro-life, they need to call themselves what they truly are: anti-choice.
Because if they were pro-life, they would have protested the killing of an innocent man, just like the protest the killing of “innocent babies.” If they were TRULY pro-life, they would be AGAINST the death penalty. And if they cared so much about black children and black people in general as these racist billboards claim they do, they would oppose the obviously racist undertones in this case. Because Troy Davis wasn’t executed because he killed a cop, it’s pretty obvious he didn’t. He was killed because we live in a society that will go against all evidence, against all proof, against all logic just to judicially lynch (yes, lynch) yet another innocent black man. For more info on this case, there’s some fantastic coverage from Melissa Harris-Perry on MSNBC. Also, check out this editorial from The Nation, and this from Colorlines.
I am so tired of groups like the Radiance Foundation (who are behind those racist billboards) staying silent on issues like this. Where was their co-founder Ryan Bomberger in the midst of all this? If they want to go on and on about how Planned Parenthood is causing the genocide of black children, fine. Then they also need to discuss the fact that once those children are born, our government and “pro-life” groups could care less about them until they are old enough to enlist. And what about women? Because so-called “pro-lifers” certainly don’t care about the already established lives of women. Nope, once you have a zygote in their you must sacrifice everything for it.
So it’s up to you “pro-life” people…keep being hypocrites or call yourselves what you really are. Or, be pro-life, all life, baby or adult, black or white, and stand up against the death penalty and AGAINST the killing of innocent people. Stand up for the lives of women. Or continue to lose any credibility you may have once had.
In the words of the immortal Coretta Scott-King, “Justice is never advanced in the taking of a human life. Morality is never upheld by a legalized murder.”
ShoutOut! James Madison University 
I’ll admit I don’t know much about the Troy Davis case, but I do consider myself pro-life, and I’d like to respond to some of your assertions.
Although I am personally against capital punishment for both practical and moral reasons, it is a fallacy to assume that all pro-lifers must also oppose the death penalty. Pro-lifers oppose euthanasia, embryonic stem-cell research, abortion, and anything else that takes innocent life, but capital punishment is different from all of those things in one important way: it is intended to take the life of the guilty, not the innocent. (I say “intended to” because, as illustrated by this case, guilt is not always easy to determine; however, that is irrelevant to the general support of pro-lifers for capital punishment.)
Second, you say that pro-lifers don’t care about women or about children that are already born. I have volunteered with multiple groups that prove that statement false. One crisis pregnancy center where I helped out offers life skills classes to struggling mothers; if they can come once a week to learn about childbirth, job skills, computers, or parenting, to name only a few topics, they earn points which they can then spend to buy baby clothes, toys, food, diapers, strollers, or other supplies. This helps mothers as well as children. Some groups provide reduced-cost day care. Some provide food. Other groups focus on euthanasia and health care of those later in life, fighting the growing trend to pressure the ill into suicide. How can you say that pro-lifers don’t care about anyone already born?
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Thanks for commenting! My belief that “pro-lifers” should be against the death penalty stems from this idea: pro-lifers assert that no one has the right to determine who lives or dies. That women should not be allowed to choose which babies they carry and which they don’t. Why then should the government be able to decide who lives or dies? Also, embryonic stem cell research does not harm innocent lives. And it would save millions. But that’s a debate for another time.
And I’m sorry, but no, “pro-lifers” do not, by and large, care about women. If they did, they would stop fighting organizations like Planned Parenthood, who provides a great amount of medical care to women AND children. Only 3% of their business is abortion but the pro-life movement has made them a target. Crisis pregnancy centers in particular do not care about women. How does using deceptive and manipulative tactics to lure women away from a Planned Parenthood or other abortion clinic under false pretenses show any good feelings toward women? I suggest you read this story http://jezebel.com/5842125/the-time-i-tried-to-get-an-abortion-from-a-crisis-pregnancy-center which details one woman’s harrowing experience with a CPC. And why don’t more “pro-lifers” work to end abstinence only education in America? If we stopped spending millions of dollars every year telling teens that sex is wrong and started giving them comprehensive education, they would be more educated about their options to protect themselves and there could actually be less pregnancies. And do CPCs ever take time to educated non-pregnant women about birth control? Because Planned Parenthood does. Let’s move into the political arena. Across the board, politicians who are pro-life are opposed to provisions such as welfare and universal health care. Yet a study by the Guttmacher Institute shows that black and hispanic women are disproportionately likely to get an abortion because of the gross inequities facing them, such as lack of access to contraception, unaffordable health care, etc. So if these politicians were really pro-life, wouldn’t they want to help these women so they would be able to plan their pregnancies and have the means to provide for the children? Why would they vote to slash all Title X funding? Because ultimately it’s not about life, it’s about choice and taking it away from women.
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