Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice Supports Maintaining Status Quo on Abortion in Health Care Reform

Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice Supports Maintaining Status Quo on
Abortion in Health Care Reform

WASHINGTON, Oct. 29 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following is a statement of
Reverend Dr. Carlton W. Veazey, President and CEO, Religious Coalition for
Reproductive Choice:

Today, with the introduction of health care reform legislation in the House of
Representatives, the long-awaited time has come when decent, affordable health
care will be accessible to more Americans. While it is deeply troubling that
coverage for abortion services remains unsettled, pro-choice clergy recognize
the need to reform our broken health care system and agree that we must move
forward. We can best do so by retaining the status quo on abortion coverage,
which allows federal dollars to be spent for abortion only in cases of rape,
incest and to save the life of a woman. Although this policy is far from fair,
this historic moment is not the time to renegotiate national policy on
abortion.

Yet there are those who are putting anti-abortion politics before health care.
They threaten to block reform unless access to abortion is further restricted.
They say they want health care for all - yet they perpetuate fear and
divisiveness, which will undermine health care reform.

To them we say: Our shared American values and vision of justice must be
paramount.

At worship services this weekend, pro-choice clergy associated with the
Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice will voice their strong moral
support for health care reform that retains the status quo on abortion
coverage. As pro-choice clergy, our first concern is for the millions without
health care and those who have been unjustly excluded because of pre-existing
conditions. It would be morally indefensible to place abortion politics over
the simple justice of providing for basic human needs.

The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice is the national interfaith
coalition of denominations with officially adopted positions in support of
reproductive choice on religious grounds. Members include the United Church of
Christ, Presbyterian Church USA, Episcopal Church, the General Board of Church
and Society of the United Methodist Church and the Women's Division of the
United Methodist Church, the Unitarian Universalist Association, Catholics for
Choice, and Reform, Conservative, and Reconstructionist Judaism.

SOURCE Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice

Marjorie Signer, Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, +1-202-628-7700
ext 12, cell 202-341-5559, msigner@rcrc.org