Earlier this month, Pro-Life advocate Star Parker testified before a congressional hearing. Parker, a prominent black woman in the Pro-Life movement and founder of the Center for Urban Renewal and Education, spoke in favor of HR 490, the Heartbeat Bill. HR 490 is federal legislation that seeks to protect preborn babies with a detectable heartbeat from abortion. Parker’s testimony was met with hostility by anti-Life Representative Steve Cohen (D- Tennessee), who insulted her and then demanded that she personally apologize to him for expressing her Pro-Life views.
During her testimony, Parker pointed out the similarities between the historical attempts of politicians in favor of slavery to dehumanize African Americans and the attempts of present-day abortion groups to dehumanize the preborn. As she notes, both efforts to dehumanize “allow a powerful few to determine exactly who had a right to humanity.” As slave-owners refused to recognize the human rights of the men and women they held captive, the abortion industry refuses to acknowledge the Right to Life of the preborn killed in the violence of abortion.
With advances in technology, medical professionals can detect a baby’s heartbeat at six or eight weeks into the pregnancy, and a baby’s heart starts beating at 21 days. The baby’s beating heart is one of many undeniable indications that the child in the womb is a living human being. As Parker testified, “In particular, with the advent of ultrasound where we can now hear and measure a heartbeat within the womb, there’s a great need for the Heartbeat Protection Act of 2017.”
When asked to elaborate on her analogy between slavery and abortion, Parker said:
In fact when you put the Dred Scott decision next to the Roe v Wade decision, they read almost verbatim. I’d like to also address something that was brought up earlier…when it comes to mixing the abortion issue with the challenges that we face in many of our hard-hit communities. I feel it disingenuous that the issues of Medicaid would come up, and other opportunities for us to re-address what has happened in our most distressed zip codes.
Parker wrote later that she was addressing the view of Planned Parenthood and anti-Life politicians who argue that poor black women are better off killing their children in abortion than giving birth. She said, “It represents the very sick view that killing children in the womb is a way to fight poverty.” Apparently this criticism struck too close to home for one anti-Life politician in the room. Rep. Cohen erupted into a personal attack on Parker. On the verge of shouting, he reprimanded her for her “ignorance or absolute inability to deal with congress people the way they should,” adding, “To say that I’m disingenuous is just wrong and I expect an apology.”
Citing “lack of civility” in the chamber following Cohen’s outburst, committee chairman Representative Steve King (R- Iowa) adjourned the hearing. Cohen’s antics, however, did not stop there. According to Parker, “After the hearing, he approached me, put his finger in my face and told me to come to his office and personally apologize to him.”
Planned Parenthood claims to work on behalf of the poor and disenfranchised, yet the abortion business preys on these same vulnerable populations by pushing abortion. Senator Cohen, a white man in a powerful position, claims to speak on behalf of the poor and disenfranchised, yet he attempts to publicly insult and intimidate a committee witness because he is personally offended by her testimony. With these actions, the stated altruism of abortion business and anti-Life politicians can only be called disingenuous.