Alveda King, the niece of Martin Luther King Jr. and a civil-rights and anti-abortion activist, called on people at a Little Rock church on Wednesday to stand against abortion -- specifically in the black community -- and encourage abstinence.
King, 64, said anti-abortion initiatives were an extension of the civil rights movement and asked the approximately 50 people in attendance at Promiseland Church Ministries on South University Avenue to support anti-abortion legislation and direct pregnant women to pregnancy resource centers, not abortion clinics. Her goal was to "inform, educate and activate," she said.
"A woman has a right to choose what she does with her own body, absolutely," King said. "But the baby is not our body. So, where's the lawyer for the baby?"
Arkansas Right to Life and the Pulaski County chapter of Black Americans for Life invited King to Little Rock for Wednesday and today. She will meet with pastors and other community leaders today, and she'll be recognized in the Arkansas House and Senate during the afternoon session.
The visit comes two days after the Arkansas Senate approved legislation that would ban telemedicine abortions, which are not currently available in the state. House Bill 1076 by Rep. Julie Mayberry, R-Hensley, would require a physician to be in the room during such a chemical abortion.
King, of Atlanta, is the daughter of civil-rights activist A.D. King and Naomi Barber King. She became involved in civil-rights campaigns in the 1960s and was arrested at a protest during Chicago open-housing movement.
She served as a Democratic representative in the Georgia House from 1979 to 1981 and is currently the director of black outreach for Priests for Life, a Catholic anti-abortion organization.
At the public event Wednesday, King shared her personal experience with abortion. She said she underwent two abortions, one in 1970 and the other in 1973.
She shared her testimony in 2012 with the Silent No More Awareness Campaign, which collects stories from those who have experienced abortion. In her testimony, King said Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court decision allowing abortion, "made it too easy for me to make the fateful and fatal decision to abort our child."
King also said Wednesday that there were a disproportionate number of Planned Parenthood clinics in minority neighborhoods.
Lekita Gaynor, a coordinator with Black Americans for Life, said Planned Parenthood, a reproductive health care provider, treated abortions as a "business" and that it "has its roots in racism."
"During Black History Month we always celebrate the great African-American leaders who have come before us, but we always forget so many promising African-Americans get killed," Gaynor said. "Whenever we kill a baby, we kill promise."
Metro on 02/19/2015