Rev. Jesse Jackson’s abortion flip flop timeline

1970– In the 1970’s as a the head of the People United to Save Humanity, (PUSH), a Chicago based Civil Rights group, [Jesse] Jackson acknowledged that he personally abhorred abortion because he felt that only the intercession of his grandmother had prevented his mother from aborting him. He brought a pronounced religious opposition to abortion, telling a group of students, “I’m conceding that unless we put human life second only to God in our lives, we’re becoming a Sodom and Gomorrah… we have an obligation to take sex and life as a far more sacred event than we do now.”

Militant Black spokesman from Black Nationalist groups and the Black Muslims denounced family planning and abortion as “black genocide”.

Leaders including Julius Lester, Dick Gregory, Daniel H. Watts, and H. Rap Brown called upon blacks to continue to reproduce in order to avoid race suicide.
(SOURCE: Intended Consequences: Birth Control, Abortion, and the Federal Government in Modern America By Donald T. Critchlow, Oxford Press, Published 1999; P. 142)

1971-Jesse Jackson, “Birth Control as a National policy will simply marshal sophisticated methods to remove ( and control when not remove) the weak, the poor – quite likely the black and other minorities whose relative increase in population threatens the white caste in this nation. Contraceptives, will become a form of drug warfare against the helpless in this nation. Those who we could not get rid of in the rice paddies of Viet-Nam we now propose to exterminate, if necessary, eliminate if possible, in the OB wards and gynecology clinics of our urban hospitals. The direct extension of the old “man-in-the-house” rule against public aid recipients can be detected in the drive for birth control…” ( Source: Statements at public hearings of the Commission on Population Growth and the American Future as quoted in: Genocide? Birth Control and the Black American by Robert G. Weisbord, Greenwoor Press, 1972 ; P. 165)

1971 The Rev. Jesse Jackson, director of Operation Breadbasket, joined a demagogic chorus the other day by charging that government efforts to spread birth control information are equivalent to genocide. (BIRTH CONTROL ISN’T GENOCIDE Chicago Tribune Jun 28, 1971)

1973– Jesse Jackson said, “Abortion is genocide. Anything growing is living…If you got the thrill to set the baby in motion and you don’t have the will to protect it, you’re dishonest…You try to avoid reproducing sickness. You try to avoid reproducing deformities. But you don’t try to stop reproducing and procreating human life at its best. For who knows the cure for cancer won’t come out of some mind of some Black child?” (Jet Magazine Mar 22, 1973; p. 15)

1973– Chicago black leader, rails against birth control and abortion clinics in the black community and warns against “genocide“. …(Chicago Tribune – Apr 19, 1973)

1974– Pro-lifers say that a resolution in favor of a human life amendment written by Jesse Jackson would be read at their meeting. (The Milwaukee Sentinel – Jul 24, 1974)

1975 Jesse Jackson helps form the pro-life group , The Christian Action Council.

1975 Jesse Jackson joins Dick Gregory in New York spoke during the third annual “Thanksgiving for Life” convention sponsored by the National Youth Pro-Life Coalition, (a non-sectarian, non-partisan group working for “positive alternatives” to abortion, war, capital punishment, euthanasia, compulsory sterilization and “other forms of violence.”) that the nation’s pro-abortion mentality undermines the value and dignity of every human life and that “killing babies” is symptomatic of a civilization and culture which operates without sacred absolutes.

1975– Jesse Jackson joins Billy Graham’s wife for a constitution amendment banning abortion. Jackson and Mrs. Graham were among the signers issued by the Christian Action Council, which read in part, “A deep concern for defenseless human life, including the unborn as well as the handicapped, is a consistent element of Christian moral teaching from the days of the Apostles onward…It is not limited to any particular Christian confession or denomination.” ( Christian’s join Bishops Ban on Abortion The Milwaukee Journal – Dec 1, 1975) and (Protestant leaders back abortion plan: The Telegraph-Herald – Nov 27, 1975)

Jackson signs a document which states, “A deep concern for defenseless human life, including the unborn as well as the handicapped, is a constant element of Christian moral teaching from the days of the Apostles onward…It is not limited to any particular Christian confession or denomination.”

1976– “I think it is a significant issue, it reflects at one level, the moral decay and ambiguity in society, I think that Whenever Human Life ceases to represent the highest value in the human sphere, the society is in trouble….at this point what the court have ruled in abortion, the legal , it almost takes away from the young man the responsibility, and from the young woman the responsibility, of the act they have engaged in. And when people begin to use the excuses like “this girl is not ready yet” it means that the law of convenience becomes the highest law, and that is a very dangerous precedent morally, even before it becomes political!” (Jesse Jackson, Press Conference USA, February 2,1976)

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1977– Endorsing the Hyde Amendment Jackson wrote, “I must oppose the use of federal funds for a policy of killing infants.” ” You don’t stop reproducing or procreating life at its best . For who knows that the cure for cancer won’t come out of the mind of some black child? ” He later called abortion – genocide. (The Southeast Missourian – Jul 14, 1988)

1977– Jesse Jackson writes, “Abortion is a vital issue. It does require immediate and wide attention because it really is a matter of life vs. death , because it is a matter of rights vs. morality.” ( The Milwaukee Sentinel – Jul 18, 1977 )

1977 Writing for the National Right to Life News, Jackson writes:

“The question of “life” is The Question of the 20th century. Race and poverty are dimensions of the life question, but discussions about abortion have brought the issue into focus in a much sharper way. How we will respect and understand the nature of life itself is the over-riding moral issue, not of the Black race, but of the human race. The question of abortion confronts me in several different ways. First, although I do not profess to be a biologist, I have studied biology and know something about life from the point of view of the natural sciences. Second, I am a minister of the Gospel and therefore, feel that abortion has a religious and moral dimension that I must consider. Third, I was born out of wedlock (and against the advice that my mother received from her doctor) and therefore abortion is a personal issue for me. From my perspective, human life is the highest good, the summum bonum . Human life itself is the highest human good and God is the supreme good because He is the giver of life. That is my philosophy. Everything I do proceeds from that religious and philosophical premise.” How we respect life is the over-riding moral issue By JESSE JACKSON; Right to Life News, January 1977

” Another area that concerns me greatly, namely because I know how it has been used with regard to race, is the psycholinguistics involved in this whole issue of abortion. If something can be dehumanized through the rhetoric used to describe it, then the major battle has been won. So when American soldiers can drop bombs on Vietnam and melt the faces and hands of children into a hunk of rolling protoplasm and in their minds say they have not maimed or killed a fellow human being something terribly wrong and sick has gone on in that mind. That is why the Constitution called us three-fifths human and then whites further dehumanized us by calling us “niggers.” It was part of the dehumanizing process. The first step was to distort the image of us as human beings in. order to justify that which they wanted to do and not even feel like they had done anything wrong. Those advocates of taking. life prior to birth do not call it killing or murder; they call it abortion. They further never talk about aborting a baby because that would imply something human. Rather they talk about aborting the fetus. Fetus sounds less than human and therefore can be justified…What happens to the mind of a person, and the moral fabric of a nation, that accepts the aborting of the life of a baby without a pang of conscience? What kind of a person, and what kind of a society will we have 20 years hence if life can be taken so casually?” (How we respect life is the over-riding moral issue:Right to Life News, January 1977)

1978 Jesse Jackson writes, “The pro-abortion forces say that the social conditions awaiting so many of the unborn are not good enough to live in. It is a legitimate concern, but in finding an answer in abortion they are overstepping their rights. In denying life because of social conditions , they are forcing their cynicism on others.”
( Abortion and Life, by Jesse Jackson Youngstown Vindicator – Jan 22, 1978)

1978– Rev. Jesse Jackson national director of Operation PUSH in Chicago, was among the scheduled speakers for the fifth annual March for Life, an anti-abortion rally on the Capitol steps. But Miss Nellie Grey said he was Ill and unable to attend. ( Thousand rally at Capitol in March for Life Observer-Reporter – Jan 24, 1978 )

1979 Jesse Jackson well known civil rights activist and president of People United to Save Humanity said recently, “Politicians argue for abortion largely because they do not want to spend the necessary money to feed, clothe and educate more people. Here arguments for convenience and economic savings take precedence over arguments for human value and human life…In my mind serious moral questions between $300.00 and $1000.00 to have abortion, but will not pay $30.00 for a hot school lunch for the already born children of these same mothers.” ( Anti-abortionists have rights: The Michigan Daily – Sep 7, 1979)

1980– Jesse Jackson , prominent black civil rights activist , says that the idea that life is private and that one may do with it as one wishes ‘was the premise of slavery. You could not protest the existence or treatment of slaves on the plantation because that was private and therefore outside your right to be concerned.’ (Abortions no answer to society’s problems: The Phoenix – Aug 7, 1980)

1984: In 1984, during his bid for President, Jackson was asked: What level of aid should the government provide for abortion?
Answer, “I choose to put my emphasis on sex education and self discipline before the fact. I would never encourage abortion, except under medically extenuating circumstances. On eth other hand I do support freedom of choice…” He later supports birth control. Bangor Daily News – May 18, 1984

1984– Jackson supports Medicaid funding of abortions for low-income women .(Morning Call – Apr 8, 1984)

1988 Jesse Jackson is the only remaining US presidential candidate to openly support abortion as a woman’s choice (Toronto Star – Jul 4, 1988)

1988 As a Presidential candidate in 1984 and 1988 Jackson has consistently said that women must have the right to choose whether to have an abortion. In an issues brief, Jackson advocates government medicaid funding of abortions for poor women. But in the 1970‘s and early 1980’s- Jackson who is a Baptist minister- was taking a much different approach. In 1977, he sent an open letter to Congress urging support for an amendment by Rep. Henry Hyde R.-Ill. banning federal funding of abortions. ” As a matter of conscience, I must oppose the use of federal funds for a policy of killing infants,” Jackson wrote. In prepared remarks before an anti-abortion rally in Washington DC, in 1978, Jackson said “allowing abortions may leave us with a hell right here on earth.” As late as May 1982, in an interview with Our Sunday Visitor , a national Catholic Weekly, Jackson said legalized abortions symbolized, ” a definite drift to Sodom and Gommorah in our culture. All this to me is part of a great suicidal process.” When asked to reconcile his positions on abortion Jackson has said that it would not be proper for him as president to impose his religious views on the country. ( Jackson’s Flip Flops raise questions about consistency :Herald-Journal – Apr 24, 1988)