RCRC is unique in the reproductive health, rights and justice movements because it draws on the moral power of diverse religious communities.
We are attuned to the important role of our diverse faiths in personal and public life. We believe the decisions to become a parent, when, and under what circumstances are deeply personal. These matters are best left to an individual to discern in consultation with family, faith and others one may bring into the conversation.
We reject the shame and stigma that religious conservatives have long attached to sex, sexuality and reproduction. We challenge these views which have polarized the debate on reproductive issues, and offer spiritual support and solace as families and individuals make their reproductive choices.
Rooted in sacred, moral, and reproductive justice values, RCRC is a multifaith, intersectional, and antiracist movement for reproductive freedom and dignity leading in spiritual companionship, curating frameworks for faith leaders, and training the next generation of activists.
The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice amplifies the voices of people of faith who, guided by our religion, honor that reproductive decision-making is a private and personal experience belonging to each individual, and, should they choose, their healthcare providers, their God, and others in their lives.
RCRC trains professionals in ministry, healthcare, social work, and other direct care services to provide judgment-free emotional and spiritual support at these times. We do this to help ensure that individuals who experience reproductive challenges and crises are supported in ways that honor their human dignity.
RCRC’s original Spiritual Youth for Reproductive Freedom (SYRF) program has cultivated some of the best and brightest figures in the faith and repro movement.
Now it’s been revived and reimagined for our current moment by the newest generation of activists and future leaders!
Are you ready to empower your work in the reproductive justice movement?
The Religion & Repro Learning Center is an online educational resource that equips activists, scholars, and religious leaders in support of reproductive freedom.
At the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, we seek to create a world that we have not yet seen but dare to hope for—a world free from injustice and oppression, where all people can thrive. In doing this work, in doing any social justice work, we must be firmly grounded in antiracism. Antiracism is not simply the absence of racial prejudice, but the incorporation of ideologies and actions that directly counter it.
Chief Executive Officer, ex-oficio
Board Chair
VIce chair
REcording Secretary
Treasurer
CEO
Rev. Zeh joined RCRC as a seminarian trained in our spiritual youth activism program and in 2015 became the youngest board chair ever elected to lead RCRC. Now as CEO, Rev. Katey guides the organization with prophetic vision, compassion, and heart. The Center for American Progress named her one of their top justice-seeking faith leaders to watch for her work on reproductive freedom. Rev. Katey has written for many outlets including the Washington Post, Sojourners, Religion News Services, and Religion Dispatches, and she regularly appears in the media, including The Atlantic, CNN, The Nation, BBC, NBC News, Newsweek, and The Christian Century. She is the co-host of the Kindreds podcast and the author of two books, A Complicated Choice: Making Space for Grief and Healing in the Pro-Choice Movement and Women Rise Up: Sacred Stories of Resistance for Today’s Revolution.
Chief operating officer
Carolyn Miller joined RCRC in 2005 as a manager of Accounting, Finance and Human Resources. She is a Certified Public Accountant in the state of Maryland and has a broad range of experience in the federal government and local non-profits.
In addition to enjoying all things RCRC, Carolyn likes to travel, build model railroads, ski and hike.
Director of communications and outreach
Melanie Bui Larsen serves as RCRC’s Director of Communications and Outreach, where she is responsible for the support and articulation of our mission and core values of reproductive freedom and dignity to the greater public. She also coordinates bridge-building efforts with national sister organizations and local grassroots partners across the country. Melanie was raised in a religiously pluralistic family and strives to bring that spirit of co-existence to her work. She is also a creative writer, bookworm, former dancer, and unrepentant cat lover.
RCRC as it exists today evolved from an underground network of ministers and rabbis called the Clergy Consultation Service (CCS), formed in 1967, six years before the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision legalized abortion in the United States.
In response to the deaths and injuries of women caused by unsafe abortions, this group quietly referred women to abortion providers they had researched and found to be safe. Within one year, CCS drew 1,400 members nationwide.
Many of the clergy involved had also been active in the Civil Rights Movement. They actively connected their racial justice activism to their commitment to helping women and families gain access to safe abortions.
After the 1973 Roe decision, a new group grew out of CCS. This new group, the Religious Coalition for Abortion Rights (RCAR), existed to safeguard the newly won constitutional right to privacy in abortion decisions.
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