Leading Opponent of Prenatal Non-Discrimination Law was a White Person Pretending to be Black
In April of 2016, Satchuel Cole of Indianapolis organized a rally against Indiana’s prenatal non-discrimination law. The law prohibits abortions sought on the basis of a baby’s race, along with other immutable characteristics like sex and disability. Support for race-based abortions is inherently racist — a criticism Cole deftly avoided by claiming to be Black.
That was a lie, the Indianapolis Star reports. Cole is in fact white.
“I have taken up space as a Black person while knowing I am white. I have used Blackness when it was not mine to use. I have asked for support and energy as a Black person. I have caused harm to the city, friends and the work that I held so dear,” Cole posted on a Facebook page under the name Satch Paige.[. . .] Cole’s admission and apology came a day after an expose about Cole’s family and race was published on the website BlackIndyLIVE.com. Laron Anderson, the website’s editor-in-chief, said it was the culmination of long-standing questions he and others had about whether Cole really was Black.
The Star article focuses primarily on Cole’s work on morally unobjectionable causes like running a food pantry and protesting police brutality. Cole’s politically embarrassing leadership of the so-called “rally for women’s rights” is noted only in passing, in a photo caption.
The 2020 news cycle moves quickly, and there a ton of big stories in the abortion sphere right now, so I feel this bears repeating: A white abortion advocate pretended to be Black, while organizing a rally against a law that would protect Black babies.
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| Satchuel Cole Image via their Soundcloud |
The pro-abortion movement has been under fire in recent months for its endemic racism. Employees of color at pro-abortion organizations have spoken publicly in outlets like Buzzfeed about the workplace discrimination they have faced, Planned Parenthood regional CEO Laura McQuade was forced out for racist behavior, and the legacy of Planned Parenthood’s eugenicist founder Margaret Sanger is under increased scrutiny. But this is all window dressing; abortion businesses and their supporters continue to vigorously support policies that lead to the deaths of Black and brown babies in the womb.
As for Indiana’s anti-racist abortion law, it sadly ran headlong into our nation’s unjust legal system. The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeal struck it down in May of last year. The Supreme Court upheld a separate section of the law (dealing with the disposal of abortion victims’ remains), but declined to take up the non-discrimination provisions. Justice Thomas, currently the only Black Justice on the Court, warned: “Given the potential for abortion to become a tool of eugenic manipulation, the court will soon need to confront the constitutionality of laws like Indiana’s.”
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