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July 20, 2022
New Pleas for Abortion Rights
The historic Billy Webb Elks Lodge in north Portland has won
support for its operations from the African American Cultural
Heritage Action Fund.
Heritage Funding
for Billy Webb
Black culture
group lends
support
The historic Billy Webb Elks
Lodge in Portland’s Albina
neighborhood has grown new
support for its operations.
The African American Cul-
tural Heritage Action Fund
(AACHAF), a program of the
National Trust for Historic Pres-
ervation, Tuesday announced
its award of $140,000 to Billy
Webb Elks Lodge #1050. The
Action Fund is the largest U.S.
resource dedicated to the pres-
ervation of African American
historic places.
Funding will allow the lodge
to hire its first staff member, a
part-time executive director/op-
erations manager for two con-
secutive years and place it in a
better position long term, offi-
cials said.
“A new wave of hatred and
prejudice has been sweeping
America, and it is important
now more than ever to preserve
sites that can provide essential
services and resources to mar-
ginalized communities,” says
Louis McLemore, Billy Webb
ruler. “Though the lodge was
borne from segregation, our
hope is that it can serve the
community in the future as a
place of racial harmony and
unification.”
The Billy Webb Elks Lodge
on North Williams Avenue in
Portland is on the National
Register of Historic Places, in
recognition of its historical sig-
nificance for Portland’s Black
community. It sustained signifi-
cant fire damage last September.
Demonstrators gather outside the Supreme Court in Washington after the Supreme Court ended
constitutional protections for abortion that had been in place nearly 50 years. (AP photo)
New Fears Stir
after Supreme
Court Decision
(AP) -- The recreation to last
month’s U.S. Supreme Court de-
cision eliminating the right to an
abortion has upset many women
across the country.
Abortion restrictions in a num-
ber of states and the Supreme
Court’s decision to overturn Roe
v. Wade are having profound re-
percussions in reproductive med-
icine as well as in other areas of
medical care. Before it overturned
Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court
never allowed states to ban abor-
tion before the point when a fetus
can survive outside the womb —
roughly 24 weeks.
Dr. Tyler Handcock, an Aus-
tin OB-GYN, said his clinic has
heard from hundreds of patients
seeking sterilization since the Su-
preme Court’s June 24 decision.
Many choose this route because
they fear long-acting birth control
or other contraceptives could also
become targets, he said.
In this country, black wom-
en are roughly three times more
likely to die from pregnancy-re-
lated causes than caucasian
women. This information comes
from the U.S. Centers for Dis-
ease Control and Prevention,
who also add that nearly a third
of all abortions in this country
are performed on black women,
making them, proportionally, the
largest group affected by over-
turning Roe v. Wade.
The Democratic National Com-
mittee has already launched a
digital ad campaign to energize
voters on the issue, warning that
Republicans' ultimate goal is to
outlaw abortion nationwide.