POWER CONCEDES NOTHING WITHOUT A DEMAND

Friday, April 04, 2008
THE REPORT FROM WASHINGTON
Today's unborn blacks: More vulnerable than slaves

Exclusive: Ellis Washington uses Frederick Douglass' 1852 speech to condemn abortion

By Ellis Washington

Power concedes nothing without a demand.
~ Frederick Douglass

Prologue

While I fully realize that the subject of abortion is an unspoken blasphemy in polite company, nevertheless during this political season I feel compelled to address this most critical issue of modern times. Why? Like slavery, abortion gives one person the power to terminate the life of another under the color of law.

Chattel slavery, or the idea that one man can own and sell another person as his own personal property, was outlawed in 1865 by force of arms in the Civil War and de jure (by law) via the 13th Amendment. Nevertheless, American society has a modern form of slavery that in my opinion is vastly more clandestine and diabolical than America's 400-year experiment with "that peculiar institution" – abortion.

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