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Matthew Bruce, the organizer of Des Moines Black Lives Matter, gets loud about a variety of issues. But one issue he’s been relatively silent on is abortion.

However, he hasn’t always been silent on the 40-plus years of infanticide that has taken place in the United States.

In a blog post dated May 17, 2019, Bruce expressed his observations on the issue.

He wrote about the Drake neighborhood and noted there were no daycare centers, no grocery stores, no homeless shelters, no medical clinics — not even a public school.

“One summer I spent every Monday evening performing at a live music venue on MLK and University; the heart of the Drake area,” he wrote. “I remember looking out the window and only seeing a few restaurants (the highfalutin kind catering to college students), a barber shop, a police station and across the street a Planned Parenthood office.”

Bruce noted that the abortion debate is complicated for radical black voices because institutions such as Planned Parenthood are “mired in a racist and classist history.”

Bruce mentioned the “well-hidden” and “sanitized eugenic legacy” of Margaret Sanger, the “proclaimed hero” of women’s reproductive rights and founder and primary crusader for Planned Parenthood.

“One of the great American crimes against humanity is the revision of racist and classist histories for the sole purpose of making it more comfortable for us to live with the results and no other single legacy epitomizes this practice than the legacy of Margaret Sanger and the role she played in progressing genocidal beliefs and practices,” he wrote.

Bruce defined eugenics as a “philosophical and political movement sponsored by elite whites.” He said it “focuses on eradicating unwanted populations such as blacks, the poor and the disabled.”

Sanger, Bruce wrote, was a “proud and vociferous” advocate for eugenics. He highlighted her 1919 article, Birth Control and Racial Betterment. He then mentions a 1950 letter in which Sanger advocates “a simple, cheap, safe contraceptive to be used in poverty stricken slums, jungles and among the most ignorant people.”

He wrote about Sanger advocating for segregation as a means of controlling black and other undesired populations. Bruce also pointed to Sanger’s plan to involve black clergy, who Sanger said would be the perfect tool.

“It is clear she did not intend for black populations to exist in the future,” Bruce wrote. “Even today the legacy of this movement can be seen in empirical data. As recent as 2012 in New York City more black children were aborted than born. In addition, Planned Parenthood was recently investigated when it was found that their affiliates were bartering and possibly profiting from the sale of fetal organs and body parts.”

But then it gets a little off the rails. Bruce said “so-called ‘pro-life’ Republicans are engaged in a class example of weaponizing their white Christianity in an effort to criminalize blackness.”

Bruce goes on to blast Republicans — the Party that stands against abortion, Planned Parenthood and eugenics.

I cannot explain the leap.

“As a proud Muslim man it frustrates me to see God’s likeness use (sic) to justify abuse,” he wrote. “Yes, the Quran warns against the slaughter of future generations for fear of poverty, which in my theological reading can be understood as a prediction and direct condemnation of eugenic politics. However, the Quran also urges that there be no compulsion in religion.”

Bruce isn’t ignorant when it comes to the racist roots of abortion, Planned Parenthood and Sanger.

He gets it.

So, the question is, now that the spotlight is on him for a bit, how come he hasn’t mentioned it?

Author: Jacob Hall

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