Justice and Peace Links

The electronic newsletter of the Presbyterian Women Justice and Peace Committee

Reproductive Health and Women’s Rights

By Lillian Oats

Background

Women’s and girls’ access to and right to make choices about reproductive health care has been and continues to be a hard-fought, long-term effort.

In 1917, Margaret Sanger, the founder of the movement in the United States to legalize birth control, was tried and jailed for providing information about contraception. Tom Davis, a United Church of Christ minister, tells of Margaret’s work in his book Sacred Work: Planned Parenthood and Its Clergy Alliances. Davis quotes from May 5, 1966, remarks of Martin Luther King Jr. to the Planned Parenthood Federation of America:

There is a striking kinship between our [Civil Rights] movement and Margaret Sanger’s early efforts. She, like we, saw the horrifying conditions of ghetto life … Like we, she was a direct actionist — a nonviolent resister. She was willing to accept scorn and abuse until the truth she saw was revealed to the millions …

Margaret Sanger had to commit what was then called a crime in order to enrich humanity, and today we honor her courage and vision; for without them there would have been no beginning. Our sure beginning in the struggle for equality by nonviolent direct action may not have been so resolute without the tradition established by Margaret Sanger and people like her.1

Increasingly in the 1960s, reproductive health care efforts were in the context of women’s rights — the right of a woman to have control over her own body. Many considered the 1973 Roe v Wade Supreme Court decision a major blow to the foundation of sexism — the basic nonacceptance of the ability and right of women to control their own lives.

Biblical/Theological Dimensions

The report of the Special Committee on Problem Pregnancies and Abortion, approved by the 204th General Assembly (1992),3 says that in our biblical study, we learn that human sexuality is a part of God’s creation, human creatures are given decision-making characters and God is concerned for all creation.

Further, the report says that biblical faith depicts persons as stewards of life, heirs who are responsible for the care of God’s world. This responsibility leads persons of faith not only to an exploration of all creation but also to efforts that maintain order, secure justice and improve the quality of life.

What Can Presbyterian Women Do?

1. Pray for courage and discernment regarding reproductive health and women’s rights.
2. Check that your congregation is using the PC(USA)’s curriculum on human sexuality, Growing Up in God’s Image. If this is not being used, what is your congregation using?
3. Become informed about the sex education curriculum, including the scope of information and to whom it is given, in your local schools.
4. Continue to support and work for the right of women to have control over their own bodies.
5. Join the Presbyterian Health Education and Welfare Association and select Presbyterians Affirming Reproductive Options as one of the network ministries that you join.

Resources

Print
“The Challenge of Choice: 30 Years of Affirming Reproductive Choice.” Church & Society, November/December 2002.

Committee on Problem Pregnancies and Abortion, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). “Report of the Special Committee on Problem Pregnancies and Abortion.” Approved by the 204th General Assembly (1992).

Davis, Tom. Sacred Work: Planned Parenthood and Its Clergy Alliances. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University, 2005.

Thorson-Smith, Sylvia. “What Does Pro-Choice Really Mean?” Horizons (Louisville, Ky.: Presbyterian Women, May/June 2006), 12–15.

Washington Office of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). “Putting Prevention First: Reduce Abortions.”Quarterly Bulletin (Washington: Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), June 2004), 1. At.

Web
Presbyterians Affirming Reproductive Options (PARO)
The Presbyterian Health Education and Welfare Association, which is part of the church’s Peace and Justice Program Area, has ten network ministries. PARO is one of these ministries.

Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice
A nonprofit, nonpartisan education and advocacy organization of religious and religiously affiliated groups working together to preserve the individual’s right to reproductive choice, free from government interference and coercion.

Planned Parenthood Federation of America
Founded by Margaret Sanger in 1916 as America’s first birth control clinic, Planned Parenthood is America’s leading sexual and reproductive health care advocate and provider.

Lillian Oats is former vice moderator for justice and peace on the Churchwide Coordinating Team of Presbyterian Women (2003–2006).

1. Martin Luther King Jr. in Tom Davis, Sacred Work: Planned Parenthood and Its Clergy Alliances (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University, 2005), 27.

2. “Putting Prevention First: Reduce Abortions,” Quarterly Bulletin (Washington Office, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), June 2004), 1.

3. “Report of the Special Committee on Problem Pregnancies and Abortion,” approved by the 204th General Assembly (1992), Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), 4–10.