Front Royal, VA, 09/25/08 – Prominent leaders in the black community joined Congressman Trent Franks (R-AZ) this past Tuesday as the Congressman announced the Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act (PreNDA). PreNDA, if passed, will make it illegal for an abortion to be performed for reasons of sex or race.
The bill was announced at a press conference on the Cannon Terrace, and introduced by Rep. Franks in the House of Representatives later that day. The legislation already has 30 co-sponsors, including Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE), Rep. Michael Pence (R-IN), and Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-OH), who also attended the press conference. Speakers included Dr. Alveda King, niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Rev. Dr. Clenard Childress, Northeast Region President of the Life Education And Resource Network (L.E.A.R.N.), Steven Mosher, President of the Population Research Institute (PRI), and William Owens, Jr., of Black Americans for Real Change (BARC).
"Today we put forward a simple principle that all Americans of good will can embrace, that no child should be marked to die, based on their sex or their race," said Franks in his opening statement. He went on to cite statistics demonstrating that unborn girls and minorities face an escalated risk of abortion.
"The Pre-natal Nondiscrimination Act seeks to protect unborn minorities and women as a simple matter of justice," says Steven Mosher, president of the Population Research Institute. "U.S law forbids discriminating on the basis of sex or race. Who can gainsay that the worst form of discrimination, bar none, is to deny unborn women or Blacks the right to life precisely on account of their sex or race?"
The Population Research Institute has launched an informational video about this legislation, available on their homepage at www.pop.org.
