Religious traditions don’t share a uniform view of family planning
It’s not just political ideology that must stay out of medicine — it’s also crucial that religion not be used as a substitute for science and the moral and ethical responsibility to provide patients with evidence-based care and Fact based information.
Religion and Abortion
A person's right to bodily autonomy and the ability to exercise their own conscious and free will is fundamental to religious liberty.
People hold a wide range of religious, moral and philosophical views about abortion.
Guided by their individual beliefs, values and circumstances, people seek abortions for a variety of medically complex and deeply personal reasons.
Despite what some religious extremists want us all to believe, people of faith support access to abortion and have abortions. The majority of Americans — including the majority of religious Americans — support access to abortion and contraceptives. A few of the organizations that respect a women’s rights to choose and are pro-choice because of their religious beliefs are: The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, Catholics for Choice, and the National Council of Jewish Women. Women of all religions use contraceptives and access abortion and are unified by the shared understanding that reproductive health care is critical to building healthy, thriving communities.
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What is Religious pluralism & why IS it Crucial to american democracy?
Religious pluralism is the state of being where every individual in a religiously diverse society has the rights, freedoms, and safety to worship, or not, according to their conscience. This definition is founded in the American motto e pluribus Unum, that we, as a nation, are gathered together as one out of many. Pluralism focuses on the American reality of religious diversity and the rights and freedoms guaranteed to us in our Constitution. The United States is ethnically, racially and religiously diverse. These groups maintain and develop their traditional culture or special interest within the confines of a common civilization.
In the U.S., the establishment and free exercise clauses of the first amendment guarantee these rights and freedoms. Religious pluralism is not religious belief being prioritized over non-belief. Communities engage with each other, acknowledging areas of deep and irreconcilable difference, but focus on areas of common ground. Thriving pluralism supports the well being of American society and democracy more broadly. Political power to impose particular religious views is dangerous to social stability and religious freedoms.
Healthy pluralism cannot exist when government picks and chooses among religions and enforces conformity to the dictates of any faith. Abortion bans haphazardly increase the substantial mistrust of our political institutions by miring them more deeply in theological matters that they are not institutionally competent to resolve.
It was not the analysis of the constitution or evidence-based medical information, but religious doctrine that drove the opposition to Roe and the US Supreme Court’s decision to overturn a 50-year precedent that protected a women’s right to control her own body and health care decisions. Abortion bans impose one religious view on all and within Christianity there is a wide variance of beliefs among denominations. The bans offend the values of religious pluralism and religious freedoms for all.
Over time, our nation has become even more religiously pluralistic. The United States is now home to over 2,000 religious groups. And more than one-quarter of Americans are religiously unaffiliated—including atheists, agnostics and those who may consider themselves spiritual or religious but do not identify with a particular religion.
With this diversity, safeguarding of the fundamental freedom of conscious is all the more crucial.
All major health expert organizations support access to abortion
Abortion bans contradict the recommendations of all major health expert associations and require physicians to provide patients with inaccurate information with no basis in medical science. These legislative requirements raise serious concerns about patient privacy, protecting the patient-physician relationship, maintaining the longstanding principles of medical ethics, and providing medically accurate health information to the public.
These leading medical societies policies represent the education, training and experience of the vast majority of clinicians in the United States.
American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) the leading authority in women’s health, The American Medical Association (AMA), The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM).
While Kentucky voters showed their support for abortion access by voting NO on Amendment 2 in the November 2022 election, The Kentucky Supreme Court and Kentucky Legislature have yet to restore abortion access in the commonwealth.
Leading experts in healthcare, civil liberties, and religious freedom fields filed briefs in support of restoring access to the Kentucky Supreme Court.
Our Voices Are Stronger Together
ABORTION IS A PERSONAL CHOICE
Together we can work to ensure individuals may make their own faith decisions about their bodies, health, families and futures. Extremists don't represent the views of most of us and our voices can drown out theirs. All people deserve the right to religious freedom and access to quality health care without fear or political interference. We hope that you will join us and help counter extremism and misinformation that allow anti-abortion laws to flourish.