History
In the 1960s, clergy who counseled women concerned about an unintended pregnancy were increasingly horrified by the injury and death being suffered by women undergoing illegal abortions. They became convinced of their moral responsibility to help women with unwelcome pregnancies locate safe abortion providers. In 1967, Reverend Howard Moody and Arlene Carmen organized the first Clergy Consultation Service on Abortion, at Judson Memorial Church in New York City. The service was a network of clergy who counseled women and identified safe abortion providers. Similar services developed throughout the country.
Simultaneously, Protestant denominations and other religious organizations were working to pass their own policies supporting decriminalization of abortion and collectively lobbying for decriminalization legislation. They were convinced that religious freedom required reproductive freedom. They consistently pointed out that where religions disagree, no one religious view should be legislated.
Even when the U.S. Supreme Court recognized that the right to privacy encompassed a woman’s decision about abortion in its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, denominations and faith groups that had worked so hard for legalization knew the struggle had not ended. They founded the Religious Coalition for Abortion Rights (RCAR) that year to provide interfaith support for women's right to choose abortion. The original intent was to focus primarily on abortion and the issue of separation of church and state.
Local affiliates were established in key states to block an anticipated constitutional amendment to counter the guarantees of the Roe v. Wade decision. However, the need for interfaith support for reproductive rights has continued and even intensified and RCRC has accordingly expanded.
Read more about this topic: Religious Coalition For Reproductive Choice
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Every generation rewrites the past. In easy times history is more or less of an ornamental art, but in times of danger we are driven to the written record by a pressing need to find answers to the riddles of today.... In times of change and danger when there is a quicksand of fear under men’s reasoning, a sense of continuity with generations gone before can stretch like a lifeline across the scary present and get us past that idiot delusion of the exceptional Now that blocks good thinking.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)
“In nature, all is useful, all is beautiful. It is therefore beautiful, because it is alive, moving, reproductive; it is therefore useful, because it is symmetrical and fair. Beauty will not come at the call of a legislature, nor will it repeat in England or America its history in Greece. It will come, as always, unannounced, and spring up between the feet of brave and earnest men.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“We have need of history in its entirety, not to fall back into it, but to see if we can escape from it.”
—José Ortega Y Gasset (1883–1955)