LOOK OUT CINCINNATI....THE TRUTH TRUCKS GUYS ARE COMIN' FOR YOU!

Rev. Clenard Childress, the anti-abortion BlackGenocide.org/LEARN Northeast and the folks from the Columbus-based Center for Bio Ethical Reform Midwest/Genocide Awareness Project (see here for Columbus GAP action) will be in Cincinnati next week July 13-18-to protest the 2008 NAACP convention downtown. We should expect the usual Christian porn: a fleet of Truth Trucks, a graphic gaggle of baybee blender bits blow-ups, and maybe even a GAP sidewalk setup.

The gripe: NAACP's 2004 resolution to support "equal access to abortion."

I don't have a lot of time today to work on this, and I've been unable so far, to find a copy of the original resolution so I'm relying on secondhand reports--and not the best sources. The 2004 resolution is not on the NAACP website, and interestingly, I haven't found any reports on it on "liberal" and so-called "pro-choice" websites, only conservative and anti-abortion sites.

According to the conservative Cyber News Service:

In 2004, the NAACP issued a resolution voicing support for equal access to family planning services and urged its members to participate in a rally for abortion rights.

Noting that "women of color seek abortion at rates higher than their percentage in the population," the organization said that "a woman denied the right to control her own body is denied equal protection of the law, a fight the NAACP has fought for and defended for nearly 100 years."

Reportedly, since 2004 the Macon, Georgia NAACP has attempted twice to introduce a resolution at the organization's annual meeting to refute National's resolution. I have not found a copy of the Macon resolution, but according to Clenard Childress,"Historically, the NAACP has failed to address the concerns of many of its delegates about abortion."

Since GAP and Black Genocide.org like to graphically compare abortion with slavery, the KKK,and lynching, they don't get much play in the real world, even when the ubiquitous Dr. Alveda King Tookes, rightwing niece of Martin Luther King (she does not use Tookes) shows up lecturing "there is no greater injustice facing black people than abortion."

For a response to King, Tookes and LEARN/CBR see Margaret Kimberley's article on race and repro rights in Black Agenda Report Freedom Rider: Abortion Rights are Civil Rights:

As black preachers have been bought off in every other realm, the anti-abortion racketeers have purchased some colored face time too. Alveda King, who makes a living billing herself as "Dr. King's niece," has become a vocal opponent of abortion with a lucrative living to go along with it. Anyone in the pay of right wing think tanks who writes opinion pieces for the Wall Street Journal and Washington Times is not to be trusted, even if they are King's kin.


LEARN Northeast (Life Education and Resource Network) is based in New Jersey and is part of "a national network of pro-life/pro-family advocates dedicated to protecting the pre-born and promoting traditional family values." For 10 years it has partnered with CBR's Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) whose local presence I've written about early.

CBR is no low-rent project. According to its 2006 IRS 990. form national CBR grossed $1,860,137 and netted out at $986,694. Priests for Life Director Fr. Frank Pavone and Rev. Childress sit on the board. Mark Harrington, director of CBR-Midwest is listed as making $51,837. (Go to Guidestar and type in names of organizations you wish to research. Free but account is necessary).

If any readers in Cincinnati spot the action, I'd appreciate a couple pictures to add to the archives.