Reproductive Justice for the Long Haul

Sometimes people ask us, in surprise, “Why Clergy for Choice?” Clergy for Choice exists to advocate for faithful reproductive justice, for a compassionate and open-hearted approach to reproductive health, and to a civil conversation about reproductive justice in the larger culture.

Forty-six years ago the Supreme Court recognized the importance of privacy, of human agency, of what in my faith tradition, Unitarian Universalism, we call the right of conscience. In the decades since our nation has seen the issue of reproductive justice degenerate into a painfully partisan, un-civil and even dangerous clash of words and values. Given the fierceness of this ongoing struggle, we of Clergy for Choice are committed to faithfully honoring the right of conscience, and finding new ways to advocate for and affirm the importance of reproductive justice. Not an easy mission in the current cultural atmosphere!

A fellow Unitarian Universalist minister, the Rev. Richard Gilbert, writes of the importance of being gentle with one another. “Be ­gentle with another— it is a cry from the lives of ­people battered by thoughtless words and brutal deeds; it comes from the lips of those who speak them, and the lives of those who do them. Who of us can look inside another and know what is there of hope and hurt, or promise and pain? Who can know from what far places each has come or to what far places each may hope to go? Life is too transient to be cruel with one another; it is too short for thoughtlessness, too brief for hurting. Life is long enough for caring, it is lasting enough for sharing, precious enough for love. Be ­gentle with one another.”

Can we do that? Can we be gentle with one another, today, in spite of the rancor in the larger culture? We believe that we can. We believe that we can listen and learn from each other in our different faith traditions. We can unite our voices and speak with both authority and gentleness. We can and must remain committed to advocating for certain core justice issues: access to health care for all, recognition of the right of women to self-determination, and the dismantling of patriarchal assumptions about reproduction. And we can invite those with whom we disagree to tell us the stories of their lives, if they will also listen to the stories of our lives.

How do we sustain this commitment to gentle but firm and unwavering advocacy for reproductive justice, particularly when we realize that we are in this for the long haul? When we grow weary, we spell each other. We remind ourselves and each other that across the various creeds and faiths that sustain us separately, there is among us a shared theology of pluralism, of love, of liberation. A theology that says that all people have value and should be able to make decisions about what happens to their bodies. A theology says that bodies are good, that knowledge is good, that sexuality is good. A theology says that there is strength and beauty in imperfection; that diversity is a blessing.

In the face of simplistic reductionism we need to continually remind people that human lives are complex; we live most of our lives in the gray areas. Given that complexity, we must be gentle with one another as we sort through contexts and options.

Once a year, near the anniversary of the Roe V. Wade decision, we gather across faiths to remember, to celebrate, to affirm, and to recommit. That is one of the ways we care for each other so that we can go back out and sustain a faithful witness for the cause of reproductive justice. Not just on that one day, but every day, we work together to find ways to model strength for the struggle built on a foundation of love, of mutual respect, of firmness and gentleness held in a creative tension that is affirming and liberating. Why Clergy for Choice? Because it is a work we are called to do together.