WASHINGTON – Alveda King, niece of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., blasted a bill passed by Oregon Democrats Saturday that provides free abortions for illegal aliens, calling it inherently racist and an incremental tool of eugenics.
After a nearly two-hour debate over the bill, House Democrats pushed through H.B. 3391, the Reproductive Health Equity Act, by 33-23 with no GOP votes. Democrats hurried to advance to the bill to the Senate before the end of the legislative session July 10.
Republicans attempted to block the measure with a failed motion to return it to committee, as Democrats have the majority in both Oregon’s state House and Senate. Oregon Gov. Kate Brown is a Democrat.
The legislation mandates that all insurance companies in Oregon must cover abortions for any reason for anyone in the state, regardless of income, insurance plan, citizenship status, sexual orientation or gender identity.
It would also allocate $10.2 million for services related to contraception and pregnancy, including vasectomies and abortions, in the 2017-19 budget period.
The bill earmarks approximately $500,000 for the Oregon Health Plan, the state’s Medicaid program, for the estimated 22,873 women who would be eligible “except for their immigration status.”
The Reproductive Health Equity Act “prohibits interference by public body in consenting individual’s choice to terminate pregnancy. Prohibits public body’s interference with health care provider terminating or assisting in termination of pregnancy of health care provider’s patient, if health care provider is acting within scope of provider’s license,” the measure states.
It also “requires that the Oregon Health Authority implement a program to reimburse the costs of reproductive health services to individuals who would be eligible for medical assistance if not for their immigration status.”
Democratic proponents of the measure maintain that making abortion more accessible is paramount to social mobility, especially among the illegal-immigrant population.
“For people living paycheck to paycheck, denying coverage for abortion or birth control can jeopardize a family’s financial security and push them deeper into poverty,” state House Majority Leader Jennifer Williamson said in press release.
“When everyone in our community has access to health care – including contraception, reproductive health services like STD diagnosis and treatment, pre- and post-partum care, and abortion – it improves the health of individuals, families, and entire communities,” state Rep. Jeff Barker said in the press release.
Alveda King, a former Georgia state representative who now serves as director for Civil Rights for the Unborn and Gospel of Life Ministries, told WND she suspects the Oregon Legislature’s effort to give free abortions to illegal immigrants is a veiled attempt to eradicate the minority population.
“The abortion lobby, the people who support abortions, try to mask it as a ‘compassionate choice for women’ and call it ‘women’s rights,’ but it’s just another way of eliminating undesirable members of any population,” King said Wednesday.
“Whether the Democrats admit that they would like to do that, they are making eugenics and genocide possible for illegal immigrants – so there is no real interest in their hearts for the lives of the immigrants,” she continued.
Democrats have relentlessly insisted that President Donald Trump is racist for speaking out against illegal immigration and so-called “birthright citizenship.” Some have also accused him of seeking to eradicate women’s rights through the Republican overhaul of Obamacare.
President Trump has promised to eliminate Planned Parenthood’s taxpayer funding as long as the group continues to perform abortions. House Democrats claimed the pro-life agenda of President Trump and Republican-led state legislatures is a means of “stripping away reproductive rights.” In a statement, Oregon Democratic lawmakers wrote:
Even while the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress are trying to strip away reproductive rights, Oregon is ensuring access regardless of income, citizenship status, gender identity, or type of insurance. While the Trump administration and Congressional Republicans in D.C. continue their efforts to slash access to women’s health, Democrats in the Oregon House today stood up to preserve and expand comprehensive reproductive health care to all Oregonians.
Republican-led legislatures in other states have been cutting reproductive care through draconian budget cuts and legislation making it harder for women to access critical services. Republican politicians in Washington, D.C., are attempting to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which would cause Oregonians to lose no-cost preventative reproductive health care and essential benefits. With HB 3391, Oregon will be moving boldly in the opposite direction, protecting and expanding access.
Opponents of the Democrats’ plan claim the bill is a ploy to help enrich Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider.
“This highly contentious bill isn’t about health care or about people; it is a political gift card to Planned Parenthood,” said Jonathan Lockwood, communications director for the Senate Republican Caucus.
Republican state Rep. Jodi Hack characterized the vote as “the saddest day I have experienced in the Oregon Legislature.”
While the bill provides an abortion exemption for churches and religious nonprofits, state House Republicans claim the language of religious exemption is narrow and violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which the U.S. Supreme Court cited when it ruled in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby that craft store Hobby Lobby could not be forced to purchase health plans that included certain kinds of contraceptive care that violated the corporation’s religious beliefs.
“It’s extremely disheartening that House Democrats have decided to move forward with this bill despite overwhelming concerns from employers and religious Oregonians,” Hack said. “Oregonians have a right to access reproductive care, but that does not mean Oregon employers should be forced to forfeit their right to hold true to their deeply held religious beliefs.”
Repudiating the Democrats’ argument that access to abortion is a part of “gender equality,” King said abortion and Planned Parenthood are historically associated with eugenics.
“What we have with Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood – it was a birth-control league initially – they sponsored a Negro Project before abortion was legal, giving free vasectomies to black men and free tubal ligations to black women, to prevent the birth of what they called ‘too many undesirables,'” King explained. “Margaret Sanger said, ‘Colored people are like weeds, and they need to be exterminated. We don’t want that word to get out, so let’s cultivate some of their leaders with our language.”
Planned Parenthood is the leading abortion provider in the U.S., and abortion is the number one killer of black people in America. Hispanics are the second largest group impacted by abortion.
“First the African-American and then the Latino,” King said. “Any movement or legislation that is promoting and pushing the abortion agenda for any reason is certainly attached to the eugenics and genocide mentality.”
