Connecticut Representative Treneé McGee spoke against abortion and its effect on Black women during a legislative session last week as part of her fight for racial justice.
The youth-focused pro-life group Students For Life of America highlighted the video of Representative Treneé McGee on Monday. The pro-life group particularly put a spotlight on statistics McGee mentioned during her speech regarding the number of Black women who had higher abortion rates than any race in the country. This, McGee said, points to the possibility that abortion is being used to curtail the Black American race.
"There's a lot of history we don't talk about when it comes to this topic, but for me, this is a part of my racial justice fight. The majority of abortion clinics are located in the Black community--social and economically depressed Black and brown communities...I want to speak to the history of this industry and why I think it's destructive to my community. Black women make up 14% of child-bearing population yet obtained 36.2% of all reported abortions. Black women have the highest abortion ratio in the country-474 abortions per 1,000 live births," McGee said.
McGee, who was elected to represent the District of West Haven during special elections last December, criticized the fact that Black girls are taught abortion is a method of birth control. The representative explained that her goal of speaking against abortion is due to the upcoming implementation of two new bills in Connecticut, which are H.B. 5414 & H.B. 5261.
To be effective on July 1, HB 5414 is an act that protects a person receiving or providing reproductive health care services in Connecticut, which includes abortion. While HB 5261 is a raised bill that will be effective on October 1 and is referred to as an act increasing access to reproductive health care. The bill particularly allows abortion to be conducted in the state through a licensed physician, physician assistant, registered nurse, and nurse-midwife.
McGee expressed hopes that everyone would learn and grow from conversations on the matter. She shared that she is dedicated to enlightening the people as she serves in the 116th legislature of the state. She explained that her role comes with the honorable reality of listening to people of her color on the impact of the current systems in place in society. She then thanked her colleagues for their encouragement, support, and time listening to her before she ended her speech.
According to a June 1, 2021 article in the Harvard Law Review, Minneapolis' University of St. Thomas Chair and Professor of Law Michael Stokes Paulsen raised the danger in the logic of Roe v. Wade and Casey v. Planned Parenthood stating that abortion can be used by a woman for whatever reason up to after giving birth to her child. Paulsen said the logic points to allowing even eugenics in undergoing an abortion.
"Surely, part of the purpose of laws banning abortion when had for such eugenics reasons is to pose a more or less head-on challenge to the legal premises and deadly logic of Roe and Casey. If those decisions do indeed yield a constitutional right to kill Black human fetuses for being Black, girls for being girls, and the disabled for their disabilities, that result is truly monstrous and rightly discrediting," Paulsen said.
Paulsen said the ultimate goal of trait-selection bans on abortion is from the fear of eugenics and lays the groundwork to overrule Roe and Casey. He raised several questions challenging "the right to abortion" persisting when it already decides to terminate a life based on race, gender, and disability. He stressed that the unborn human being remains to have undeniable human traits and characteristics, which through moral intuition will finally unite the differing moral instincts of traditionists and liberals. If taken from this viewpoint, he stressed that it would potentially be game-changing.
