Popular Song Advocates Violence Against

Pregnant Women

In a remixed version of pop artist Usher’s new song called Confessions (remix), Hip Hop artist Joe Budden suggests violent action against a mother when she is unwilling to abort her child.

Confessions (remix) includes lyrics such as:

….Pray that she abort that,

If she’s talkin’ ‘bout keepin’ it,

One hit to the stomach,

She’s leakin’ it…….

According to Day Gardner of Black Americans for Life, an outreach of the National Right to Life Committee, “These lyrics are demeaning and outright violent toward both women and unborn children. It is appalling to suggest that a man attack a woman to cause the death of her unborn child. As women and as mothers, we simply cannot allow ourselves or our unborn children to be treated as objects of such abuse.”

Gardner says that these lyrics highlight the value of protective legislation such as the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, also known as the Laci and Connor’s Law. Black Americans for Life is urging African-Americans to call BMG Entertainment, the parent group of Usher’s record label, to request that they pull support of the song and to call their local R & B/Hip Hop stations to request that Confessions (remix) be pulled from their playlists and from the air.

President George Bush signed the Unborn Victims of Violence Act in the spring, but the federal law can only protect women and their unborn children in Vermont if they are victims of a federal crime. Cases of violence against pregnant women in VT have resulted in their assailants receiving convictions on charges of no more than simple assault - even when the attack or negligence led directly to the death of the unborn child. Vermont needs to join the 27 other states that have passed legislation to protect women and their unborn children from abuse.

Today a Bennington, VT man is being held for allegedly beating his pregnant girlfriend after she came home from the supermarket without clams. According to the Burlington Free Press (June 24, 2004) Steven Gardner is accused of choking Jennifer O’Brien and kneeling on her stomach. Ms. O’Brien is 7 months pregnant with her second child.