Birmingham Clinic Defense

By Marshall Martinez, New Mexico RCRC activist

When Ambrosia and I arrived in Birmingham it was muggy, warm, but pleasant overall. I didn’t know what to expect at the New Woman, All Women clinic we had come to defend, but I prepared to face the worst. This was the first time I’ve ever been in a situation that was expected to be volatile or physically abusive.

When we arrived in the clinic by cab, it occurred to me what that image was to the anti-choice protestors present: two young 20 somethings, getting out of a cab together, one male and one female, in front of an abortion clinic. I never asked Ambrosia about the things that we heard, or if she heard them. I heard screams that enraged me. “Don’t do it, don’t kill your baby, all the way up to, he did this to you, you’re a slut, he made you a slut…” all within seconds of getting out of a cab. When it was clear we were at the clinic to help, the protestors changed their chants and moved onto other their targets. It went from being about me hurting her to me being a sinner, a faggot, and a queer...

We spent a while standing on the grass with our signs, showing that we were people of faith who affirm choice for women, and affirm those choices no matter what they are. This seemed to really anger the protesters who frequently yelled epithets about our “lacking faith,” or our faith in the “wrong god.”

We attended the victory rally at a local park with Feminist Majority and NOW activists as well as my new hero, Diane, the New Woman, All Women clinic owner. Passionate activists addressed the crowd about many issues including those representing the GLBT community. Messages about gay men’s participation in what is usually considered a “women’s issue” were prominent. In New Mexico, we have a difficult time motivating gay men to care about the choice issue, and this was a rewarding part of my weekend.

While we were at the rally, the protesters (whose leader had apparently been arrested on Friday) packed up to go home. Since we had made our way from New Mexico to help, Diane asked us to stick around and serve as clinic escorts. The experience as a clinic escort was of particular interest to me—I was fascinated by stories of summers past and the experiences of organizers, escorts, and the staff. We chatted with about the clinic bombing in 1998, getting a history lesson about the events, the consequences, and the conviction of the women who opened the clinic only one week after such a violent attack.

I wish in many ways that I hadn’t heard these violent stories—I wish that we lived in a society where women were simply left alone to make decisions about their destinies the way most men are allowed to do, but I am regularly forced to face reality.

For me, this experience specifically highlighted the need for the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice and Spiritual Youth for Reproductive Freedom. There are definitely extremists who use political means to put laws in place to keep women from accessing the services they need, but the battle isn’t really being fought inside the beltway as much as it is being fought in the pews, on the streets, in the media, and in “counseling sessions.” The fight has grown and twisted to be about the way we treat women in this society.

The battles are about morality, conscience, and faith. More and more women are being forced to defend their decisions, having to hide them or worse—regretting them because of growing social stigma. The work of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice and Spiritual Youth for Reproductive Freedom is necessary to move forward, necessary for the emotional and physical health of American women. I dream of a day when a woman can walk proudly into a clinic, for birth control, for prenatal care, or for an abortion, and feel safe. The day when she will be able to go alone or with a friend, partner, or parent and know that the two of them will not face angry judgment from protesters, damnation form preachers, or quiet contempt from neighbors and friends.

Spiritual Youth for Reproductive Freedom (SYRF) is hosting our FIRST EVER Summer Soiree on June 12 at RFD (810 7th Street, NW) in Washington, DC. Interns, young professionals, students, and other young adults are invited to join us for drinks and appetizers. Stop by to learn about our program and ways to get involved in the spiritual pro-choice movement. We'll be joined by Food TV star and former sexuality educator Warren Brown! Help us spread the word about this exciting event by forwarding this e-mail to other interns and young professionals who will be in DC in June.

Download the invitation (pdf)

When: June 12, 2007 (6:00 to 8:00 pm)

RSVP: Info@syrf.org

Where: RFD 810 7th Street, NW in Washington DC's Chinatown neighborhood.
RFD has over 300 of the world's finest bottled beers, the city's best collection of brewing styles and world class brews along with the best selection of local craft brewed treats. Selections constantly change, new beers come to town, craft brewers offer different seasonals, the list is ever!

Directions: RFD is located half a block from the Gallery Place/Chinatown Metro Red Line.
Warren Brown: Warren is the host of Sugar Rush on Food TV, an entrepreneur with a spirited passion for enjoying life, and a former sexuality educator. Warren left his career as a lawyer to become a baker in 2000. Armed with a credit card and a sense that people wanted something better than what was currently on the market, he founded CakeLove, a bakery. With luck and fortunate timing, both the public and media recognized his passion and delicious scratch-made cakes.

His career up until then had been varied but tied to a theme of health education and an admiration for the human body. Warren began professional work as a health educator in Providence, R.I. in 1993 teaching reproductive health education and continued that work as a health educator in Los Angeles, Calif. focusing on tobacco and reproductive health. His passion for providing honest and frank discussion about reproductive health compelled him to attend law school, aiming to earn credentials to gain authority and effect change in the curricula of reproductive health for youth in America.

The Intersection of Reality and Politics

By Dawna Cornelissen, Texas Women's University


The week the Supreme Court made the decision to uphold the late-term abortion ban consisted of a series of events that left me in a state of contradictoriness. It started the day before the decision was made. On that day, the organization I belong to, Vox: Voices for Planned Parenthood at Texas Woman's University, hosted an on-campus event called "Discovering Pro-Choice Faith: A Discussion," which was sponsored in part by Spiritual Youth for Reproductive Freedom. The event was a panel discussion between four local pro-choice clergy members who spoke about their faith's perspectives on reproductive rights. While the panelists represented different faiths, there was one thing they all seemed to agree upon: that the woman took precedence over the fetus. All of the panelists agreed that because of this it was ultimately the woman's choice of whether or not to have an abortion. The panelists used the same logic to defend birth control and emergency contraception. It was so refreshing to hear self-identified people of faith talking sense about abortion.

As the event came to a close, I felt a huge sense of optimism for the future of the reproductive rights movement. Our pro-choice student organization had just successfully put on one of our most enlightening and progressive events yet. However, the next morning, I was awakened to the sound of my cell phone alerting me that I had a new text message. It was an automated text message from what I later realized was Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) notifying me that the Supreme Court had just ruled 5-4 to uphold the federal abortion ban. I had completely forgotten about the case and had no idea it was to be decided anytime soon. For a second I thought maybe it was just a bad dream. But, as I soon found out, it was no joke; as we all know, on April 18, 2007, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of imposing a ban on what has been inappropriately called "partial-birth" abortions.

I wondered how any rational, nonbiased person (as a judge should be) would uphold a ban that is unconstitutional and just plain wrong for so many different reasons. In her post, Gloria Feldt makes two very good points about why it is wrong: First, it overturns the legal principle of the importance of the woman's health by not providing exceptions and second, it sets a precedent for medical techniques to be legislated. Even if the Supreme Court Justices didn't put their religious views aside, even though they should have, it is not an excuse for putting women's lives in danger. As I learned the day before, religion is not an excuse for being anti-abortion. The whole day I wrestled with the decision in my head, wondering what other sort of legal precedents it set for abortion related bills and at the same time thinking about how simple the argument for a woman's right to choose seemed just hours before.

The next day I attended an awards ceremony at school because Vox had been nominated to receive the Outstanding Organization of the Year award for 2007. Even before the Supreme Court's ruling I was skeptical about whether or not we would win the award. Although I thought we deserved it, I knew there were people who felt passionately that the very thing Vox stands for, reproductive rights, is wrong. But, at the ceremony, I suddenly heard the presenter describing a pro-choice organization and then announce that Vox: Voices for Planned Parenthood won the award for Outstanding Organization of the Year! It felt good to be acknowledged and accepted among our peers, especially at a time when it seemed like everyone was against us.

Later that night I was still in shock while trying to figure out what it all meant: the pro-choice faith event, the abortion ban, and the award. I still don't know what it all means or how it will all play out in the end, but I do know that this movement is important to me. It is important to me because it affects me; it is woven into my life in ways I never imagined possible. Since the Supreme Court's decision, the Texas legislature has been busy with anti-choice bills, but it is still hard to tell what the future holds for Texas in regards to reproductive rights. The good news is that on the same day the Supreme Court upheld the ban, the trigger bill in the Texas legislature (HB175), which would have outlawed abortions in Texas if Roe v. Wade was overturned, failed to make it out of committee. So, maybe there is hope, even if it is just a little.

This article was origionally posted on May 8 through www.rhrealitycheck.org.

SYRF Slideshow

Check out the slideshow of SYRF events over the past year. We used the slideshow at the first ever SYRF in the Spotlight awards dinner at the RCRC national conference on April 25, 2007!

Law Students for Choice: Tell Your Friends!

originally posted to the Religious Action Center blog on March 27, 2007

By Emily Kane

Emily Kane is a former Legislative Assistant at the Religious Action Center. She is currently a student of the University of Arizona, James E. Rogers College of Law.

I am a conference kinda’ gal. I think it’s the little plastic insert nametag necklaces that keep me coming back. Through friends at the RAC, I heard about the Law Students for Choice (LSFC) Conference that took place on March 10 and 11 in Northern California. I knew I had to go because not only am I a conference gal, but I am a “choice” gal, a N. California gal, and now a law gal too. More, I received a scholarship from the Spiritual Youth for Reproductive Freedom (SYRF) to attend. It was b’sheret. [meant to be]

This years conference – themed, “Many Voices One Vision: Reclaiming our Rights” – had many speakers: scholars, activists, attorneys, some a medley of all three. Despite their varied backgrounds, each focused on communication: how can we most effectively communicate our message both internally and as advocates? Many panelists offered insights: we need to gravitate away from “choice” because it doesn’t resonate with the younger generation; the movement’s rhetoric must focus on women’s autonomy; we need to pay attention to polling when picking our words; and (my favorite) government oversight for reproductive healthcare should resemble regulation of the airplane industry – the government cannot tell someone when or where to fly, but they are partially responsible for stabilized prices, safety, and accessibility.

A major lesson? It is hard to pinpoint fluid, easy, passionate language to use as an advocate in this debate. However, one of the speakers came pretty close. Loretta Ross (National Coordinator of SisterSong (www.sistersong.net/) and National Co-Director of the 2004 March for Women’s Lives) shared her phrase of choice – “reproductive justice.” As a former RAC Legislative Assistant, I thought this squared nicely with the Reform Movement’s agenda. Reproductive justice highlights the need for access to reproductive healthcare for all people regardless of geographical location, financial situation, or background. Reproductive justice puts a premium on education so that individuals can make informed decisions about their bodies and their ballots. Reproductive justice applies not only to the struggle within the United States, but addresses global reproductive health concerns. Reproductive justice represents the type of imperative that many of us feel regarding this issue and have difficulty articulating. No one at the conference (nor I) advised dropping “choice” from our vernacular. Rather, give choice a new friend; “reproductive justice” will be an excellent addition to your rhetorical bag of tricks. On days when you’re feeling a little lonely in your struggle, make sure to use it. It is guaranteed to remind you why you continue to fight.

Law students without a LSFC chapter on your campus can get connected and start your own! For those spending the summer in Washington, DC – sign onto the LSFC listserv and meet with likeminded law students for discussion panels, speakers, etc. If you are interested in integrating resources from the religious community you can of course look to the RAC, and also check out Spiritual Youth for Reproductive Freedom (SYRF).

Not just making copies....

By Saskia Shuman, SYRF intern at the Missouri Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice

While most interns make copies and return phone-calls, my experience thus far at MORCRC has been rather different. During my first few weeks here, I have made exactly zero copies and have been initiating the phone calls, not returning them for others.

In particular it has been both exciting and frustrating to work on creating a database of attorneys willing to work pro bono with underage girls who need judicial bypasses for an abortion. I have already talked to the attorney at the Missouri ACLU, to various people at Planned Parenthood and half of the family court staff in order to confirm that there is indeed no system in place and that everyone agrees that one would be helpful. While this certainly gives me the motivation to continue my work, it also makes me sad that there are currently girls living in Missouri who are basically without recourse if they can’t or won’t obtain parental consent.

In addition to my striking (and exciting) lack of clerical work, after only 2 weeks 'on the job' I have also already felt slightly overwhelmed by my position as the SYRF intern and worried about my ability to represent the coalition and my beliefs. Although I am very passionate about women's health, I somehow found myself sitting in a plush chair trying not to bite my fingernails (a bad habit that I can't seem to break when I'm nervous) while on a recent trip to Jefferson City. Sitting in a tapestry covered room in the Capital building, surrounded by professional legislators, lobbyists, and interested parties I worried that I had come an hour and a half just to be too scared to do my job: to testify in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee about several proposed bills.

It turns out that I needn't have been apprehensive. After listening to one legislator display his complete ignorance about the human body, and specifically women's bodies, I found that I was too incensed to be nervous. My dismay that a senator would display such an utter lack of information changed my fright into anger and I found that the rest of the evening was both fascinating and frustrating-but not at all scary.

While I was only there to testify on behalf of SYRF, I ended up adding my name to the record on behalf of another bill and actually being disappointed when there were so many witnesses that I could only state my name. Despite my initial reservations, I found that being there felt empowering. I felt like I could actually have an impact upon public policy and that we, the other members of various faith and pro-choice organizations, could protect a woman's right to choose. Although I have very little hope that the testimony we gave will actually keep the Missouri senate from further attempting to limit reproductive choice and freedom, I am glad I had the opportunity to be included in these hearings and am excited about my other projects at MORCRC and at my school in the near future.

Parking Lot Activism

Written by Lauren Bull
James Madison University
Students for Reproductive Justice

As a pro-choice Catholic, I cringe every time I see that certain bumper sticker. You know the one I’m talking about. “You Can’t Be Both Catholic & Pro-Choice.” I get so angry every time I read that phrase. Is the Catholic church an exclusive club? Must we all think the exact same way and have the exact same opinions?
One day last summer I was really irritated after work. I’d sat in traffic for an hour and a half. For those of you from D.C. metropolitan area, I know you understand. Anyways, I pulled into the grocery store parking lot and right there in front of me was a mini-van telling me the guidelines for a real Catholic. For the most part, I’m a calm person and I rarely let things like that bother me. But this time, I was just so tired of the anti-choice rhetoric and I felt I had to get my point across. Don’t worry, I didn’t vandalize their car or anything. Instead, I took a small piece of paper and wrote on it, “Your bumper sticker is close-minded and offensive. And just so you know, I am Catholic and pro-choice.” I placed it under their windshield wiper and drove away so proud of myself. The pride only lasted for about an hour.
Looking back, I realize that was just an immature and momentary fix for a problem I encounter a lot in my life. Yes, I can be Catholic and pro-choice. But do I want to be? As Christians who support reproductive rights, we know there are groups out there who promote our cause: the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, Spiritual Youth for Reproductive Freedom, Catholics for a Free Choice, etc. But the problem is, the amazing people who run these organizations are not running the majority of the churches. I can pretty much guarantee you won’t catch my priest giving a sermon on reproductive justice. Though, he does love to remind us on Mother’s Day to thank our moms for choosing life. And that’s exactly my point. When I do hear about reproductive issues at church, it’s never a balanced perspective. I hear about the sign-up sheet for the March for Life or I see fliers in the lobby telling me why abortion is wrong.
Where are the people like us? Is it just me? Honestly, I feel nervous every time I pull into the church parking lot with my pro-choice bumper sticker on my car. Not because I’m scared, but because I know what people are thinking. My car stands out from the others. I’m not the only making a political statement with a car. I’m just not making the right political statement.
My faith will never waver no matter what people say or what bumper stickers they slap on their cars. I will always be both a Christian and an advocate of reproductive freedom. However, the way I choose to express my faith might change. I question whether I should stay Catholic. I hear about other forms of Christianity that are more progressive and accepting, and I sometimes consider converting in the future.
What do you think? Do I stay in a religion where a pro-choice Christian is the minority or find a new one that welcomes me? Does anyone else feel this way or ask these very questions? What is the best thing to do? I don’t know the answer and there probably isn’t a right one. Most likely, it’s something we all have to find out on our own. But I have faith that there is answer out there for every one of us.