Throughout the course of American history, the quality of human life has always been improved at the expense of the weak and oppressed. The tragic awareness of this reality leads one to the inexorable conclusion that the quality of life has never been a universally applied concept. This has never been so true as it is today in the move toward human abortion. It take little imagination to see that the unborn Black baby is the real object of many abortionists. Except for the privilege of aborting herself, the Black woman and her family must fight for every other social and economic privilege. This move toward the free application of a non-right (abortion) for those whose realneed is equal human rights and opportunities is benumbing the social conscience of America into unquestioningly accepting the ''smoke screen'' of abortion. The quality of life for the poor, the Black and the oppressed will not be served by destroying their children.

Held in bondage for decades, the Black man served the master society. His humanness was ruled out of existence by the law and social ''norms'' His only function was to advance the slave owner's prestige and economic gain. Every effort was made to destroy Black family; knowing that with its destruction, the Black man remained powerless. But we hung on, and in the 1960's the civil rights legislation brought some equality to those who were already equal. While all seemed good and power seemed imminent, the plight of the Black man, woman and child did not improve, but only changed from the plantation to the ghetto, and the chains of slavery took on newer, more subtle and sophisticated forms. Prejudice and poverty now kept the Black family in powerless state. Now, the womb of the poor Black woman is seen as the latest battleground for oppression. In time past, the Blacks couldn't grow kids fast enough for their ''masters" want us to call a moratorium on having babies. When looked at in context, the whole mess adds up to blatant genocide.

Genocide has come to mean acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national ethical, racial or religious group as such; by killing member of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; or forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

So when Adolph Hitler sent 6 million Jews to the gas chambers and ovens, it was genocide. When the Turks slaughtered 1.2 million Armenians in 1915, it, was genocide. When the ancient Romans fed Christians to the lions in a conscious effort to wipe out Christianity, it was genocide. These are all very open and very Blatant acts. But there are more subtle forms of genocide, and these are occurring in America. at an ever increasing rate, every day.

The substandard housing of the poor in this country where heat, water and plumbing facilities are lacking, and adequate public services such as garbage removal are withheld, is genocide. The poor food found in the ghetto supermarkets, the absence of health services, and the fires which consume the run-down houses and the little kids who live in them is genocide. The fact that the Black die six years earlier than whites and the infant mortality rate is twice as high for Blacks is genocide. The condition of ghetto schools and the quality of public education in Black communities is genocide. Government family planning programs designed for poor Blacks which emphasize birth control and abortion with the intent if limiting the Black population is genocide. The deliberate killing of Black babies in abortion is genocide. perhaps the most over form of all.

Black genocide is so subtly, insidiously and deeply woven into the fabric of American society that it is little wonder that the United States has still not ratified the 1948 United Nation Genocide Conventions which made the crime of genocide a part of international law. Russia, China and seventy-three other countries have done so, but not the United States; It seems that congress has certain ''reservation' and it seems that these fall in line with other ''reservation'' that this nation perpetuates.

As a Black, Protestant social worker of thirty-four years experience in the rat-infested ghettos of the United States, I am calling for an immediate halt to this genocide. The time has come for our nation to bury it prejudices and open its doors to everyone. Only when this occurs will true equality become a reality and the fullness of our humanity. be experienced.

Certainly there are many who may feel that I am grossly exaggerating that I am making accusations out of bitterness. While I may have all the reason in the world to be bitter, it is not from this that I speak. The evidence speaks for itself- loud and clear!

Reason for Concern

The move toward genocide in the United States has been most powerful, although generally unrecognized. In a brilliant expose' of this movement, Samuel F.Yette, formerly with OEO (Office of Economic Opportunity) the peace Corps, and Newsweek magazine, has told how (1) sterilization and birth control programs have been aimed against Blacks while masquerading under the name of hunger relief, (2) the "rice cup" bloc in Congress has worked to turn Black ghettos into exploited colonies. (3) state, county and local government have refused "socialistic" programs to feed Black poor, while grabbing millions in federal aid for wealthy, nonproducing farmers, and (4) in a study made for the National Commission on the Causes and prevention of violence it was it was concluded that "the overwhelming majority of white Americans would be good Germans' if the government turned to massive racial repression'' (Rodney Stark and James McEvoy 111,'Middle- Class Violence, '' Psychology Today, November 1970).

While many southern states have relaxed their abortion statues, I have not found one piece of truly progressive social legislation which the South as a whole has been willing to give to Blacks. On the other hand, the same year the same year that North Caroline relaxed its abortion law, it refused to legislate equal employment opportunities for Blacks.

Many politicians have openly endorsed abortion as part and parcel of their political philosophy. Most significant among these is the abortion-on-demand stand of Senator George McGovern. the Democratic nominee for President in 1972. In addition to this. Senator McGovern had set as a 'firm national goal'' the year 1976 as a target date for achieving zero population growth in the United States. Since most white Americans have already achieved this. it can only be interpreted as having its most significant impact on the Black poor. To kill an unborn child because it may be unwanted. or deformed, or simply does not measure up to someone's standard of excellence is the same as destroying a Vietnamese village in order to save it. For Senator McGovern, who has made his name as a peace candidate, to strongly support abortion is totally inconsistent with any reasonable concept of the value and dignity of human life.

New York City Mayor John Lindsay, himself a strong advocate of abortion on demand; implemented his prejudices when he appointed Mr. Gordon Chase as administration. On November 29, 1969, Mayor Lindsay quietly asked for the resignation of Dr. Bernard Bucove, the former administrator who had won the confidence of many neighborhood groups. Mrs. Letitia Diaz of the East Harlem Health Council called the move Ïa blow to community participation in health planning and the setting of health priorities, and George Goodman, Chairman of the Committee on Health Priorities for Harlem, stated that ChaseÌs appointment has caused grave concern in the community.

One of Mr. Chase's principal advocates was the cityÌs budget director, Frederick OR. Hayes. As budget director, Mr. Hayes could be expected to exert some influence on Mayor Lindsey in the direction of cost-effective birth control programs. Gordon ChaseÌs own qualifications include budgeting, auditing, accounting, personnel, and office services, and he is also a member of the CIA. To some, such qualifications eminently suited him to run the health program for the nationÌs largest city. To other it is obvious that Gordon Chase (a strong advocate of abortion) was appointed by Mayor Lindsay to run the New York City abortion program efficiently - one that is destroying Black babies at an unbelievable rate (see below).

While President Nixon has strongly defended the unborn's right to exist, his administration policies toward the delivery of family planning program to the Black poor are highly suspicious and, I think, can be strongly indicted. In a terribly illogical move, he propose, in his opening remarks to the White House Conference on Hunger, held in 1969, that the Commission of Population Growth and the American Furture be established. What this had to do with hunger is still be determined. However, he made it quite clear that this was aimed at the poor: ÏIn proposing the commission I also declared that it would be the goal of this administration to provide adequate family planning services within the next five years to all those who want them but can not afford them. There are some five million women in low-income family who are in that situation, But I can report that steps to meet that goal have already been taken within the administration and the program is underway.

While efforts in this direction have been gigantic, similar efforts to feed and house the poor are hardly off the ground. At the same Conference on Hunger, a panel on Ïpregnant and Nursing Women and InfantsÓ headed by Dr. Charles U. Lowe of HEWÌS National Institutes of Health recommended: (1) Mandatory abortion for any unmarried girl found to be within the first three months of pregnancy and (2) mandatory sterilization of any such girl giving birth out of wedlock for a second time. Passage of this proposal was virtually assured when DR Alan Guttmacher, President of Planning Parenthood-World Population and a member of the panel, gave it strong support. However, though the quick action of Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer, a Black lady from Ruleville, Mississippi, and a strong civil right leader, the inane proposal was withdrawn. ÏIt was never explained what all of this had to do with hunger.

Dr. Guttmacher's strong support of this proposal has been characteristic of planned parenthoodÌs approach over the last several years. Generally, planned parenthoodÌs policies are made by upper-middle-class white people who have a fetish about controlling the reproductive capacities of others, especially those who are poor and Black. They are joined by many others of even greater wealth: John D. Rockefeller, 111, Nelson A. Rockefeller; the Rockefeller Foundation; the Ford Foundation; the Carnegie Foundation; the Commonwealth and Community Funds: the Mott Trust; the Population Council (a Rockefeller baby); the world bank; the Hugh Moore Fund; General Draper; Robert McNamara; J.Patrick Moynihan; the Kellogg Foundation; Clifford Hardin; Stuart Udall; Robert Packwood ; Paul Erhlich; and the Agency for International Development (AID).

In addition to these, the medical profession in the United States has been a potent power in bringing abortions to the poor. While they have sadly neglected the delivery of health care to the underprivileged, they have responded to the make- a - buck philosophy of the American system in their push for legal abortion.

Those who open propose abortion as a solution to almost any problem openly that it has racial or genocidal implications. However, recent testimony before the Minnesota State Legislature by pro-abortionist social worker gives insight into the subtleties of prejudice. She cites the following case as an example of why abortion should be available on demand: A teenager came home from a boarding school pregnant. She and her parents are very sensitive people. They spent hours together planning on how the girl would go away to have her baby, place it out for adoption, and then come back home. Until- until she told her parents that the baby father was Black. On hearing this the parents were horrified. They then chose abortion as the only way out.

This case was cited as an example to our legislators that abortion-on -demand is necessary to make it possible for white folks to kill some unborn children simply because they are Black. This is a form of racism that reaches all the way out to the gutter.

Reason for concern? Yes! But why this trend? with an ever increasing awareness of the morality of equal right. why the put-down? Well, it is socially undesirable today to chain the Black man up or to reintroduce slavery. With the persistence of the Black family, the Black may one day make our society see where we have been deeply wrong and deeply prejudiced all these years. It will be difficult to handle when that day comes. Extermination is the one (?).

EVIDENCE OF COERCION

If family limitation programs were truly grounded in free choice, in voluntary acceptance or rejection, one could have little quarrel with there availability. However there is mounting evidence to suggest that coercion is being used; that the freedom to say no has seen lost.

Chicago's Planned Parenthood Association has been known to sponsor birth control coffee parties all over the poorer sections of the city, a policy unheard-of in the suburbs. Dr. Charles Greenlee, a respected Black physician in Pittsburgh, contends that the birth control information and propaganda of federally financed family planning program are carried into the home of poor Blacks by home visitors and public assistance workers, who allegedly coerce indigent Black women into visiting the clinics. Greenlee says that intimidation takes the form of implicit threats that welfare payments will be cut off if the recipient has more children.

The Senate Finance Committee, chaired by Louisiana Senator Russell B. Long, recently rewrote the AdministrationÌs Welfare Reform and Social Security Bill This Bill. This Bill, which has now become law, applies pressure on state to set up birth control programs for the poor. while coercion has been denied, those states which fail to set up adequate birth control programs for the poor will lose up two percent of their total federal welfare payments for families with dependent children. If this isn't coercion, I donÌt know what it is. In New York City, the of losing appropriations has led one health center to play a recording in waiting room every five to ten minutes urging women to visit the local family planning agency. This is not only coercive. it is genuinely dehumanizing.

The Federal Government has financed a true confessions-type magazine, called Truth to Life, to sell contraception to women. The magazine is produced by the staff and students of the University family planning program. More than 130,000 copies of the first issue have been produced. The project is based on the premise that lower-income woman identify with the characters in the confession magazine tell the reader that it is financed by the government.

The South Carolina Legislature recently heard a proposal to begin mandatory sterilization of all welfare mother after they have had two children out of wedlock. Similar legislation has been spoken of in the Delaware State Legislature : and in New York, York, Judges offer woman the choice -either be sterilized or receive no welfare. These actions would acquire a markedly different political cast if ÏwelfareÓ were defined to include the five- and six-figure federal subsidies paid to wealthy Southern agriculturists. At Cook County Hospital in Chicago, some physicians attempt of labor. How coercive can one get?

PREVALENT BLACK ATTITUDES

The prevalent Black attitude toward birth control and abortion is distinctly in opposition. A summary of these attitudes was presented by Charles V. Willie, PH.D. Chairman of the Department of Sociology at Syracuse University, in his testimony before the Commission on Population Growth and the American Future, He said;

"I must state categorically that many people in the Black community are deeply suspicious of any family planning program initiated by whites. you probably have heard about, but not taken seriously, the call by some male dominated Black militant group for females to eschew the use of contraceptives because they are pushed in the Black communities as a method of exterminating Black people."

The genocidal charge is neither absurd nor hollow as some whites. have contended. Neither is it limited to residents of the ghetto, whether they be low-income Black militants or middle-aged Black moderates. Indeed, my studies at white colleges indicate that young educated Blacks fears Black genocide.

This attitude has been expressed in many ways. Not long ago, a family planning center in Cleveland was burned to the ground after militant Blacks labeled its activities Black genocide Following this, the antipoverty board of Pittsburgh became the first in the nation to vote down OEO appropriations to continue Planning Parenthood clinics six of the city's eight poverty neighborhoods. The move resulted from intense pressure applied by Black, who again charged genocide.

At the First National Congress on optimum Population and Environment, held in Chicago, Black psychiatrists and other delegates vigorously dissented. They saw such schemes as genocidal. Dr. Alce Gullatee, staff psychiatrist at St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Washington, D.C. after walking out, said: "I think that white are into a psychological state of denial of their own fears and anxieties about their annihilation. Therefore, what they are talking about represents the survival of all people but just happen to be Black peoples. So we perceive it as a genocide attempt."

In writing about this incident, Carl Rowan, the well-known Black syndicated columnist and former ambassador to Finland, said:

"However irrational these fears of trickery and worries about genocide may seem, they are real in many minds. We must take care not to intensity them by sending, bureaucrats into Black neighbored to push birth control, or wealthy white "do-gooders" into impoverished ghettos to beat the drums for family planning."

The challenge is to illustrate every day that rats, roaches hunger pains are viewed by all society as more of a menace than an accidental pregnancy. At the National Conference on the Status of Health in the Black Community, held in Nashville, Tennessee, December 11, 1971, and sponsored by Mehary Medical College, Howard University School of Medicine, the National Dental and Medical Association and the Congressional Black Caucus, it was unanimously voted to condemn family planning programs and urge better maternal and child health care.

Many studies of Black attitudes reflect the strong support of the above actions. In a study conducted by the Bowman Gray Medical School on poverty-level Blacks, 79% of 776 poverty-level Black females, 86 of 500 of their partners, and 70% of 215 low-middle income Black females were found to be not in favor of abortions under any circumstances. Similarly, when 990 urban Black females were studied, 77% were found to be opposed to abortion under any circumstances, and this opposition was found to be manifest in their actions of actually carrying their children to term. When Black males under 30 were studies, 88% of them were found to be in opposition to abortion as a means of birth control.

THE REALITY OF BLACK GENOCIDE

Although Blacks are strongly opposed to various family planning programs and especially to abortion, there is incontrovertible evidence that they are being eliminated their wishes. While birth rates have dropped for nearly every sector of the United States population over the last decade, birth to poor women dropped by 32 per thousand, compare with a drop of 17 fewer per thousand among the rest For Black poor women, the fall was even greater; they produced 49 fewer babies per thousand. Government -sponsored birth control clinics, supported by men and organizations with money and power, are slowly achieving their aims.

"The evidence is even more striking when one reviews the abortion experience of New York City. 43.4% of all abortions performed on New York City residents were performed on Ïnon-whiteÓ (90% of whom are Black). This is put into even more tragic perspective when one realizes that only 18.1% of New York City residents are nonwhite."(90% of whom are Black).

To make the point clearer, Bellevue Hospital, a large metropolitan hospital whose patients are Black, is now aborting 2.3 babies for every live birth. And this hospital has filed an official report to the Health Services Administration since the enactment of the New York Law, in July 1970.

Black woman are being aborted at a rate 2.5 times greater than any other ethnic group in New York City. Why? They are not being given the freedom to say no! They are being coerced into destroying their children! This must come to an Immediate Halt! Then, an investigation should be carried out, and Those responsible should be brought to trail for one of the most ghastly crimes of this century.

AN UNTRIED APPROACH TO POVERTY

Black have every right to be offended by a policy that tries to solve the dilemmas of poverty and swelling relief roles by urging Black to have fewer children. President Johnson, in his March 16, 1964, message on poverty to Congress, said, " I have called for a national war on poverty. Our objective: Total Victory." The jobs, decent housing , healthy environment, adequate food, clean water and sanitation and improved education that haven't been provided as part of this "total victory" show that the "war on poverty" has been a dismal failure.

It has been amply demonstrated that discrimination against Black, Indian, Latin Americans and Puerto Ricans has reduced their employment opportunities. But discrimination does more than that. It instills in minority groups a hopelessness that inhibits ambition and limits educational advance. What does poverty mean to those who endure it? It means a daily struggle to secure the necessities of even a meager existence. It means that the abundance, the comfort s, the opportunities they see all around them are beyond their grasp. Worst of all, it means hopelessness of the young. Anyone who feel that family limitation, especially abortion, will elevate these problems is sadly mistaken.

Poverty prevents man from realizing his humanity to the fullest degree. Abortion only knocks him down another step. One can only help the poor effectively to rise above their subhuman condition by attacking the structures of their impoverishment from which the rich profit, even if they do not realize it or do not desire it. One can only serve them when one has judged and eliminated that natural feeling of superiority which causes people to use other people for their affluence and profit.

It is impossible to hoist the poor out of their state of malenourishment if one refuses to touch in any way the living standard of the rich, or the economic system which, by itself, works of increasing impoverishment of the poor. Our response must be: