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RCRC Demands Alveda King Cease False Claims About Abortion

September 23, 2010
Washington, DC - The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC), the nation's interfaith coalition supporting reproductive rights and health for all women, joins with Black Women for Reproductive Justice in demanding that Alveda King immediately cease her harmful, deceptive campaign against African American women and families. Ms. King, a niece of the late civil rights leader Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., is trading on her uncle's famous name to  further her personal agenda, to the detriment of the well-being of the   African American community.
 
RCRC, through our pioneering National Black Religious Initiative, has   worked with more than 800 African American churches for 14 years to break through taboos that have kept Black women and families from addressing high rates of teen pregnancy, which contribute to as much as 70 percent of poverty, as well as accessing reproductive health care. RCRC member organizations include the Episcopal Church, Presbyterian Church (USA), United Church of Christ, two agencies of the United Methodist Church (General Board of Church and Society and the Women's Division of Global Ministries), Unitarian Univeralist Association, and the Reform, Conservative, and Reconstructionist movements of Judaism.

We are outraged by Ms. King's claims that reproductive health care -   including abortion - is equivalent to genocide. Her charges are intended to drive a wedge in our community and to attract people to her Religious Right cause. Our community will not be taken in by this misrepresentation. The right-wing has never been concerned about the racism, poverty and injustice that Dr. King was dedicated to eradicating and Ms. King's vicious and false claims do not change that reality.

Moreover, disparaging reproductive health clinics that provide abortion, birth control and reproductive health services is harmful to individual women and to communities struggling with high rates of unintended pregnancy, teen births and HIV/AIDS. It insults the intelligence and values of African Americans and is offensive to women who make conscientious moral decisions about pregnancy.

Alveda King's anti-women, anti-family activism - in the name of the revered civil rights leader - is insulting to Americans of all races and religions who have worked for equality, unity, and inclusion and contrary to Dr. King's ideals of justice, freedom, and respect for the dignity of all people.