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The Mission of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice
The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice brings the moral power of
religious communities to ensure reproductive choice through education and
advocacy. The Coalition seeks to give clear voice to the reproductive issues
of people of color, those living in poverty, and other underserved populations.
How is the Religious Coalition organized?
Where does the Religious Coalition get its funding?
What is the Coalition's position on abortion?
What does being religious and pro-choice mean?
What does the Bible say about abortion?
Doesn't mandatory parental notification protect girls?
What is the Coalition's position on late-term abortion?
How is the Religious Coalition organized?
The Religious Coalition's national office operates as a hub that connects and coordinates the activities of the constituent components: national member groups, local affiliates, the Clergy for Choice Network, and individual supporters. The national office has a number of functions: making sure the media and policymakers know the religious pro-choice position on timely issues, designing and implementing programs, serving as a clearinghouse for information, and providing technical assistance and training to affiliates. We have three broad program areas: activism and service, organizing for diversity, and faith-based advocacy and education.
Our members are national groups from mainstream denominations and faith traditions, all of which have roots in religious identity, share common religious values, and have a pro-choice policy. Organizations must apply for membership. The organizations form the Council of Governors, which elects the Board of Directors. Together, the council and the board set policy and oversee administration and programs.
Where does the Religious Coalition get its funding?
The Religious Coalition is supported by private individuals and foundations that believe in our work and by contributions from our member organizations. We have two entities: the Religious Coalition Inc., a 501(c)(4) organization that conducts public policy and advocacy work, and the Educational Fund, a 501(c)(3) organization that promotes public awareness through educational programs, publications, leadership training, etc. Only donations to the Educational Fund are tax-deductible. Our financial information is available here.
What is the Coalition's position on abortion?
The Religious Coalition is pro-choice, not pro-abortion. We do not at any time advocate for abortion but we do advocate for women and men making their own decisions about their reproductive life, in consultation with their faith tradition, a condition that we believe is the very basis of an individual's dignity and of moral behavior.
Being pro-choice means we believe women and men should be able to decide what is best for themselves and their families, including giving birth, choosing adoption, and deciding to have an abortion. We work to keep family planning and sexuality education available to all Americans because these are the tested and proven ways to reduce unintended pregnancies and abortions.
The fact is, we communicate the grave moral nature of abortion. As people of faith, we support individuals in making their own moral decisions and stand with them as they struggle with the very real complexities of life. It is clear that, while people of all religions anguish over abortion, most feel this is a moral decision, one a woman must make for herself in keeping with her faith, beliefs, conscience, and her own personal situation.
What does being religious and pro-choice mean?
Religious Coalition supporters are pro-choice not in spite of our faith but because of it. We recognize and affirm that all life is sacred and that part of being human is the responsibility to hold all life and creation in sacred trust. Part and parcel of that trust is the call to be responsible moral decision-makers.
To be pro-choice is to respect all points of view and respect individual conscience. To be pro-choice is to trust women and families to make their own decisions. And it means speaking openly in our churches, synagogues, temples and mosques about sexuality, knowing we have the love and support of our faith communities, whatever our circumstances.
As you know, Americans have very strong feelings about abortion. Some believe, on the basis of religious tenets, that the fetus is a person and therefore they are unalterably opposed to abortion. Millions of others-for equally conscientious and religious reasons-believe that human life does not begin at the moment of conception and that abortion is a permissible option. We believe that the decision about terminating a pregnancy is a personal decision, to be determined by an individual in keeping with her convictions and religious beliefs. We believe that no one religious belief about when life begins should be made a law that all Americans must live by. To do so would violate our cherished principle of separation of church and state.
There is a great danger in the attempt of the Christian Coalition and others of the "Religious Right" to outlaw abortion and responsible sexuality education and even family planning. We can't be fooled into thinking this is just about abortion. Outlawing reproductive freedom is only one step to their ultimate goal-a theocracy. They want to enshrine their beliefs in law. They want to do away with rights of conscience. They want us all to believe and act as they do. This is what the Religious Coalition is fighting and why we are an essential voice in America.
What does the Bible say about abortion?
At the time the Bible was written, abortion was widely practiced in spite of heavy penalties. Even so, the Hebrew scriptures had no laws forbidding abortion and there is no condemnation or prohibition of abortion anywhere in the Bible. This was chiefly because the Hebrews placed a higher value on women than their neighbors did. Abortion is not mentioned in the Old or New Testaments. There are some references to the termination of pregnancy. The most well-known, Exodus 21:22-25, says that if a pregnancy woman has a miscarriage as a result of injuries she receives during a fight between two men, the penalty for the loss of the fetus is a fine. If the woman is killed, the penalty is life for life. It is obvious from this passage that men whose fighting has caused a woman to miscarry were not regarded as murderers because they had not killed the woman. The woman had greater moral and religious worth than the fetus.
Doesn't mandatory parental notification protect girls?
The anti-choice forces have targeted teenage girls in their campaign to stamp out choice. Forty-one states have mandatory parental notification laws. These laws hurt the most vulnerable girls-those who cannot go to their families for help and understanding. As people of faith, we oppose all such legislation, masquerading as parental rights, on moral and humanitarian grounds.
I've heard the Coalition supports "partial-birth abortion." Is that true?
There has been considerable misinformation about abortion procedures in the media and in legislation. Groups that want to return to the days when abortion was illegal have conducted a vigorous campaign of legislation and publicity to ban abortion procedures. They made up the name partial-birth abortion to drive a wedge in the pro-choice movement. The National Right to Life and their friends in Congress wrote legislation so broad that it outlaws safe and common procedures used throughout pregnancy.
In 2000, the Supreme Court struck down a Nebraska ban on abortion procedures by a one vote margin. The court agreed with the Coalition and many other groups that the ban fails to protect women's health and would forbid safe procedures used before a fetus is viable. We are very concerned about the one vote margin. Two and perhaps three new Supreme Court justices will be named in the next four years who could overturn Roe. v. Wade or reduce it even further so that abortion is a right in name only. It's up to all of us to work even harder to ensure reproductive choice remains a reality to women.
What is the Coalition's position on late-term abortion?
The Coalition believes that this issue should be left up to the individual member groups. In a policy position taken March 5, 1982, the Board of Directors stated that late-term abortion should not be a focus of the Coalition. Our focus is supporting choice and striving for religious freedom.
Anti-choice groups have used the issue of late-term abortion as fodder in their propaganda war against women. They claim that late-term abortion is a common practice. In fact, late-term abortions are extremely rare. Ninety-one percent of all abortions are in the first 12 weeks. It is ludicrous to suggest that women would carry healthy pregnancies for seven or eight months and then have an abortion on a whim. Yet this is the anti-choice argument! On the rare occasions when women have third-trimester abortions, they do so because their fetuses have severe or fatal anomalies or because the pregnancy endangers their lives or health.
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