Ohio Democratic Representative Janine Boyd proposed a controversial amendment earlier this month that would make African-American babies exempt from the state’s new “heartbeat bill.”
Ohio is the [sixth] state to have implemented the pro-life bill. This new legislation bans abortion once the unborn baby’s heartbeat can be detected, which tends to be at approximately six weeks gestation.
Boyd, however, believes that the heartbeat bill should not apply for African-Americans because America is “not far enough beyond our history to legislate as if it is.”
She cited the way pregnant black women were treated during the slave trade as justification:
“I consider the slave trade and how black slaves were once treated like cattle and put out to stud in order to create generations of more slaves. I consider how many masters raped their slaves.
I consider how many masters forced their slaves to have abortions, and I consider how many pregnant slaves self-induced abortions so that they would not contribute children they had to the slave system that was the foundational economic system of our country, our younger country.
And so I submit to you, respectfully, that our country is not far enough beyond our history to legislate as if it is.