Why Religious People Should Support the Rights of Women in Reproductive Decisions

[cbayer]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/harry-knox/why-religious-people-should-female-reproductive-rights_b_1468770.html

Harry Knox
President and CEO-Elect, The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice

Posted: 05/03/12 10:51 AM ET

Lately, headlines have been full of reports of religious condemnation of abortion and birth control. As a person of deep faith, I believe the opposite: I believe that -- as a matter of social justice -- religious people should support the rights of women to make decisions about bearing children, including about abortion and birth control. God's love encompasses all creation. It includes a woman in labor and it includes a woman having an abortion. It does not stop at the door to a women's clinic. For women, justice must include the right to make decisions about sexuality and reproduction.

Many people of faith and religious institutions think that reproductive rights should be protected and expanded, but often they are silent. Women's reproductive rights have been so stigmatized and stripped of moral value by certain religious leaders that it can be difficult to speak up. Ongoing opposition to comprehensive contraception coverage in the Affordable Care Act by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and their allies is the latest example of stigmatizing women's health care. This is a good time to reconsider why religion should support, not oppose, women's reproductive rights. Here are six reasons:

1. Religions hold that all human life is sacred -- and include the life of a woman as well as that of a potential child. This belief inspires many religious communities to work for a world in which women are healthy and every child is wanted, loved and cared for. Those religious communities support birth control, safe and legal abortion, and health care for all.

2. Religions value the responsible and loving use of the gifts of sexuality and reproduction. The decision to become pregnant and have children is one of the most important we make as individuals and couples. We have a sacred responsibility to support the rights of women in this process because women have the responsibility of bearing children.

more at link

[dmallind]

1. He's right, they should

I can't comment on the arguments about God's love obviously, but scripture shows even third-party killling of a fetus to be equivalent to a property crime not murder, let alone the decision of the host organism (which as far as I can tell is not mentioned anywhere).

Unfortunately again what should be and what is are two separate issues;



No doubt some people will try to argue that committed liberal believers, in large enough numbers to affect these results, say they don't attend church or pray regularly, or that religion is not all that important to them, or even that they are not sure God exists (apparently these questions are not good proxies for religious commitment for some never-explained reason), but for the reality community it's obvious the deeply religious are far FAR more likely to want abortion illegal than the less or non-religious.

[cbayer]

2. Great data and I agree with your conclusion.

Those in religious communities and religious leaders who are making a strong case for protecting women's rights based on their theology need to be supported and heard.

They are most likely not going to influence the deeply religious, but there is a big group that fall outside that definition that could be swayed by this.

[laconicsax]

3. Everyone should support the rights of women because it's the right thing to do. n/t