Comments from Dr. Alveda King on Abortion and Her Uncle, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
In December 2009, for Coral Ridge Ministries-TV, Jerry Newcombe interviewed Dr. Alveda King, which he has done on other occasions as well. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s niece, Alveda commented on her uncle and abortion. Evangelist Dr. Alveda King is a leading pro-life figure. Here are some of her remarks from that interview.
Photo: Dr. Jerry Newcombe and Dr. Alveda King, Ft. Lauderdale, December 2009
Alveda King: In 1966, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was one of the first recipients of the Margaret Sanger Award. Margaret Sanger is the founder of Planned Parenthood and they are the largest abortion providers in America. So, people say, oh wow, Dr. King supported Planned Parenthood. Actually, he did not. If you read Dr. King’s statements or if you knew him as I did, Dr. King said, “The negro cannot win if he’s willing to sacrifice the futures of his children for immediate personal comfort and safety.” In 1966, abortion was illegal in absolutely every state. New York was about to pass uh… the right to have abortions. And so, when Dr. King got that aware, one, he did not attend the ceremony; two, he did not write the speech. His wife went and read a speech that had been written by perhaps a woman who was pro-choice. We are just about able to identify exactly who wrote it. We know Dr. King did not attend. And so, Dr. King throughout his lifetime, supported the Dr. King supported the rights of the most oppressed. Dr. King supported the least of these. If anyone had said to Dr. King in 1966, when they gave that very deceptive award saying, we want to commend you Dr. King for supporting your community. We want to help people. We’ll have an organization called Planned Parenthood to help your community plan good families and happy families. If anybody had said that same organization will be at the forefront of the abortions or deaths of over 50 million babies, then Dr. King would have said no thank you. Dr. King was a pro-life, gentle person.
JN: Excellent. Explain about how can the dream survive if we murder the children.
Alveda: As a niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., as a daughter of Rev. A. D. King, daddy and mother in 1950 made the decision to keep me, although there was pressure from a group called The Birth Control League that would later become Planned Parenthood that was in the schools passing out information, telling women, you have a right to choose what you do with you body, come and see us. Mother had just been accepted into college, and she wanted, of course, to finish college. And so, she thought about, oh, well, they said this is a lump of flesh, it’s not a baby, maybe I don’t have to have a baby right now. But Dr. Martin Luther King, Sr. says, you have to have that baby, I saw her in a dream three years ago. Now, I’m the little baby, I’m the little lump of flesh, you know, and so my parents chose life, my grandfather fought for my life. I slipped away from the church, I was deceived by Planned Parenthood in the mid-‘60s, and in 1973 when Roe v. Wade passed, I had a legal abortion. And I was advised by my abortion doctor, don’t tell your family, don’t tell the church. But finally, in the mid-‘70s, I went back to my grandfather, and I said, “I’m pregnant. I think I’ll have an abortion, it’s legal. It’s a blob of tissue.” He said, “That’s a lie. That’s my grandchild… my great grandchild. You must have that baby.” And the baby’s daddy was a medical student. He said, “That’s 46 chromosomes, 23 from you, 23 from me. I want my 23 back alive.” And I remember chuckling about that. And then, over the years in the ‘80s, I was recommitting my life to my faith and everything and I said, “Well, okay, a woman has a right to choose what she does with her body. The baby is not her body. Where’s a lawyer for the baby.” And I began to read my uncle’s statements again, and I would begin to hear injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. I said, “It’s unjust to kill a little person because they’re little. A woman has a right to choose what she does with her body, but where is a lawyer for the baby. How can the dream survive, if we murder the children?” And as a college professor, I would give that as an assignment to my students, and I’d ask them to answer that question. Morals and ethics today: has America gone too far? And every time the students would come back and say, “The babies need a lawyer.” And so, that’s the philosophy that has grown with me over the years.
