Juneteenth is a celebration of the end of slavery in America and the beginning of black families living freely and safely. It marks the right of black Americans to build families, which is a crucial aspect of building futures. However, some argue that racial justice and the right to abort preborn children are inextricably linked. This argument is not valid, as the pro-abortion agenda and true racial justice, which is celebrated on June 19, are fundamentally opposed.
On June 19, 1865, about 250,000 enslaved black Texans learned that they had been freed under the Emancipation Proclamation. The order had legally gone into effect more than two years earlier, but the struggle to subdue Confederate territories continued. One of the first things newly freed slaves did was search for their families, as the evil of chattel slavery had cruelly separated parents, children, and siblings. Their frantic efforts to reunite with loved ones were characteristic of the Reconstruction era, and freedom meant building and protecting families and forming strong communities.
However, the struggle to protect black American families did not end there. Legal freedom was no guarantee of safety, success, or even freedom. The premature end of Reconstruction birthed a violent new power structure as southern states choked off many freedoms granted to freed slaves. Almost 100 years after the Civil War and the ratification of the 13th amendment, the civil-rights era began to win back these basic human rights.
Black men and women, led in large part by black clergy, fought for the right to education, work, and freely associate, worship, and travel. More importantly, they fought for their children’s rights. The black family has been and always will be the beating heart of efforts for racial justice and reform. The black church has been and needs to be America’s conscience, rallying together, demanding liberty and justice while serving and empowering communities that deserve it most.
However, activists and even some pastors tout abortion as one of the “rights” that we should be celebrating on Juneteenth. This is not only morally incoherent but also offensive. Abortion destroys the families that we have fought so hard to protect. It is not a “right,” and it builds nothing. Abortion annihilates a life and, in doing so, tears apart the social fabric that binds us together.
Instead, we should focus on policy questions and argue over what harms black families the most. We must address the overwhelming range of assaults that many black families face today, such as marriage rates, segregation and school funding, economic inequality, maternal mortality, and police abuses. We must also consider the hundreds of years of state-sanctioned abuse and discrimination that black Americans’ forebears endured and the lingering marks that heritage has left not only on these families but on every facet of this nation. Abortion solves none of these problems. It is not justice; it is death.
This Juneteenth, we should celebrate centuries of sacrifice by black American families, leaders, and clergy on behalf of our civil rights. We should celebrate our emancipation, enfranchisement, and legacy of achievement. We should celebrate the futures we can build while condemning the injustices so many black families face today. We must stop buying the deadly lie that abortion liberates or uplifts black Americans, as it is killing us and wounding the communities we have worked so hard to build.
