I love going through my Amazon Prime Video listings for documentaries and movies about the Kennedy years. While watching a documentary on the fight for civil rights, something struck me hard, like a lightning strike: The Democrats of yesteryear would be mortified to see what has happened to their party.

One of President Kennedy’s goals was to put through a civil rights bill giving African Americans the same rights as other citizens of this country. It wasn’t sanctioned by the Southern Democrats (and some Republicans), but that didn’t dissuade him. He was assassinated before the bill was presented to Congress. Lyndon Johnson became president and to the dismay of his fellow Southern Democrats, during his first State of the Union address he pressured Congress for “the earliest possible passage of the civil rights bill as the best way of honoring” the memory of John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

It was an uphill battle, but after a great deal of wheeling and dealing, the bill passed through Congress with a 290 to 130 vote (Democrats: 152 yes and 96 no; Republicans: 138 yes and 34 no). Then the bill went up for debate in the Senate. What followed was the longest filibuster on record. A bipartisan group of senators was finally successful in convincing others to end the filibuster, and on June 19, 1964, the bill passed on a 73-27 vote (Democrats: 46 yes and 21 no; Republicans: 27 yes and 6 no). How wonderful it was that Democrats along with their Republican colleagues fought so hard for the rights of all, regardless of race.

Since a Democratic president advocated and signed the civil rights bill, understandably, the majority of blacks voted Democrat. A large contingent still does. Unfortunately, they have not been aware the party has quietly and gradually thrown civil rights out the window by climbing on the abortion bandwagon and proudly supporting Planned Parenthood, founded by the racist Margaret Sanger. One of the most telling comments on the purpose of Planned Parenthood was in her letter to Dr. Clarence Gamble: “We don't want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population...”

Sanger’s goal gets closer to attainment each year. According to the CDC, as of July 2017, the black population in the U.S. stood somewhere around 40 million, which means that abortion has reduced the size of the black community by more than 30%. More than 19 million black babies have been aborted since the 1973 Roe v. Wade U.S. Supreme Court decision legalized abortion in our country. And while only 13% of the U.S. population is black, 36% of all abortions in the U.S. in 2014 were performed on black women.

The way Planned Parenthood operates has always been misrepresented, thanks to mainstream media’s continued censorship and Democrats covering it up. Planned Parenthood systematically locates their clinics in minority neighborhoods and even focus ads towards black women. Seventy-nine percent of Planned Parenthood's surgical abortion facilities are within walking distance of minority neighborhoods. This is civil rights?

What happened? The Democratic Party went from protecting the rights of blacks to being complicit in genocide, while having the unmitigated gall to pander to them each election. This year it has gotten worse. The 2020 Democratic presidential candidates support abortion up through the ninth month and now endorse infanticide if the baby survives an abortion. This is not the Democratic Party of yesteryear.

Patti J. Smith is the Assistant Director of Rachel’s Hope Healing Ministry