The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice:
35 Years of Partnership with The United Methodist Church

Statement of Bishop Beverly Shamana, President of the General Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church

As President of the General Board of Church & Society (GBCS), I endorse the continued relationship between this board and the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC). Thirty-five years ago, GBCS began this initiative. It has grown into a coalition encompassing a diversity of faith traditions that view “reproductive choice as a basic part of religious liberty.”

Basic to the values we hold as United Methodists is the belief that women are capable decision makers regarding their bodies and the gift of childbirth. For Christians, choice is a central tenet of our faith and a gift of God. From Genesis onward, God offers the freedom of choice to the human family.

GBCS serves, in part, “to bring the whole of human life … into conformity with the will of God” (¶1002, 2004 Book of Discipline). While no one can presume to fully know God’s will, as Christians, we believe the life and sacrifice of Jesus Christ teaches us that God honors and values each person as worthy of an intimate relationship with God.

As each woman, man, and child is loved and embraced by God, our choices are informed by faithful Christian discipleship and moral decision making. Throughout these 35 years, various church leaders have spoken on behalf of moral decision making and a woman’s reproductive choice.

Retired Bishop Melvin Talbert, in a speech delivered in 1996, described those making a decision about abortion as entering “into the pain and the struggle of life in the real world, and in the face of that reality, to choose. … To choose abortion is not a rush to judgment. To choose or not to choose abortion can be the greatest and most difficult decision one can make.”

In an ideal world, women would not find themselves in situations where abortion need be considered as an option. An ideal world would make health care available to all. Women would be free of violence, oppression, and harmful cultural practices.

Prevent need for abortion
GBCS works with its coalition partners in RCRC toward the creation of this ideal world by offering programs that work to prevent the need for abortion.

RCRC is working to:

• Reduce unintended and unwanted pregnancy and the need for abortion through advocacy for greater access to family planning services and comprehensive sex education;
• Help clergy and congregations address sexuality and relationship to prevent teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS infection and to reduce abortion rates;
• Train clergy to assist women with crisis pregnancies and women and couples suffering from reproductive losses such as infertility and stillbirth;
• Provide faith-based, comprehensive sexuality education that is authentic to racial-ethnic communities and translated into Spanish;
• Advocate for comprehensive healthcare, responsible parenthood initiatives, and the reduction of sexual and domestic violence in culturally appropriate ways; and
• Train clergy to address all options, including adoption, when counseling women facing unplanned pregnancies.

Care for creation
In Genesis, God issues a charge to Adam and Eve to care for creation. GBCS and RCRC work together to care for creation by addressing systemic injustices in the world such as eliminating poverty, AIDS, and other maladies that keep humanity from claiming the fullness of creation.

The ministry offered through RCRC to families, young people, women and men, about their decisions is of profound benefit. Through dialogue, prayer, discussion and shared experience, the witness to God’s love and value for each one is made real. The investment of GBCS has been and will continue to be an important factor in the mission and ministry of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. For more than a third of a century the General Conference has supported this partnership for choice, and it is my hope that it will continue for the moral and faith empowerment of women and men.

Editor’s note: Bishop Shamana released this statement in response to a petition submitted to the United Methodist General Conference, which will meet April 23-May 2 in Ft. Worth, Texas, calling for the end of the denomination’s support of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. The United Methodist Women’s Division of the General Board of Global Ministries is also a member of the coalition.