"Nobody wants black babies"

ALL babies are wanted

These disgusting words have been uttered to me repeatedly by a man that I meet on a sidewalk. A man of influence. His name is Jacob Kalo. My husband can corroborate, Scott also heard him say it.

Kalo took the Hippocratic oath more than three decades ago as he became an obstetrician focused on caring for pregnant women. Somewhere along the way, he switched gears, choosing pregnancy termination over pregnancy care.

Kalo’s intention is not to deliver living babies anymore. He provides gynecological services at three clinics in southeast Michigan: East Detroit, Sterling Heights and West Bloomfield.

I became acquainted with Kalo while standing on the public sidewalk in front of the West Bloomfield, MI, clinic that he owns. In order to show moms, dads, Kalo and the whole community that people care about them and what’s going on at 6765 Orchard Lake Road, I regularly do outreach in front of the Women’s Center.

Joined by at least one other person, we may hold a sign, we pray with our eyes open, and we’re aways eager to talk with anyone who is willing. We have resources to share with women in need. We have facts to share about human development. We are willing to listen to objections and discuss situations. We get happy honks. We get fingers.

On Saturday morning, October 28, 2017, Kalo approached me on the sidewalk, to talk, for the first time. We have spoken since then at least ten times.

He is eager for me to believe that he is helping women, how he has helped so many over the years. I remind him that someone necessarily must die in the process.

Kalo does not dispute that the “POC” (product of conception) that he vacuum extracts or chemically aborts is actually a human. “I only abort before viability,” he asserts.

The more dependent a human is on us, the more we care for it: babies, toddlers, children, the infirm, the disabled, the elderly. Preborn babies depend on their mothers to survive. (Click here to learn the meaning of the acronym SLED.)

“But, it’s legal,” he continues.

So was slavery, I remind him. So were the anti-semitic policies of Nazi Germany.

Sadly, legal is not always synonymous with right. In January of 1973, the Supreme Court legalized abortion throughout all 40 weeks of pregnancy. More than 60 million people have been aborted since then.

Kalo brazenly continues his defense, “Nobody wants black babies. Adoption agencies turn them away and so they come to me.”

Despite my persistence, he refuses to name any social service or adoption agency that has turned away a woman who wanted to allow her baby to be adopted.

Why won’t he name any? Because it’s a lie. No social worker would say such a thing.

“ALL babies are wanted,” says Dawn Baker, Michigan director for domestic infant adoption and pregnancy counseling at Bethany Christian Services.

“Bethany has over one hundred approved adoptive families in Michigan right now. The majority of them are open to a child of any ethnicity or any gender,” says Baker.

And Bethany Christian Services isn’t the only licensed adoption agency in Michigan. All babies are wanted, but they aren’t all being born. According to Michigan Right to Life, "The same language that was used to discriminate against African-Americans in the past is now being used to discriminate against unborn babies."

Black women make up about 14% of Michigan’s female population, but had half of all abortions in 2017. All 25,757 babies—of all ethnicities—that were aborted in 2017 were wanted, by someone.

Jacquelyn Moffett, director of Homes for Black Children, in Detroit, says, “Women choosing to parent need better neighborhoods, better schools, jobs, training, education. All these things factor in to raising a child.”

But we need families before we can have neighborhoods. We need children for schools. We need a culture that celebrates life, not one that devalues it. This Dignity of Human life video really says it all.

But we have believed lies: that children are a burden—not a blessing, that when in crisis, eliminating a pregnancy will fix things. Instead, abortion not only ends a life, it steals from families, destroys communities.

“Many pregnant women may be in crisis for a period of time,” says Karen Jewell, director of A Woman’s Pregnancy Choice, a pregnancy care center in metro Detroit. “When they continue the pregnancy they bond. Many consider placing the child for adoption then choose to parent the baby.”

Right to Life of Michigan lists more than 150 agencies throughout Michigan that provide confidential help to women who are experiencing an unplanned or crisis pregnancy.

Be a force for good. Speak for those who have no voice, show love to despairing women, share your resources, your home. With our words and our actions, we can refute the lie that this abortionist and our culture speaks because, ALL babies are wanted.

Christina's Story

All of our stories have a beginning. That beginning shapes us throughout our lives. Christina’s story nearly ended in an abortion clinic. Her story demonstrates that the tragic impact of abortion in the Black community doesn’t have to be destiny.

Click HERE for adoption resources:

Join me on the sidewalk, email shawnmariespry@gmail.com