All sides weigh in on the pregnancy prevention bill
Lindsay Perna/Religion News Service
Issue date: 8/9/09 Section: Divine Intervention
Both sides in the abortion culture-war called a tentative truce on Capitol Hill late last month as Democrats and prominent faith-based groups unveiled legislation that aims to reduce and prevent abortions.
The bill, crafted by Rep. Rosa DeLauro, an abortion-rights supporter from Connecticut and abortion opponent Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio, includes methods - namely, contraception - that some anti-abortion groups traditionally have rallied against.
Conservative evangelical and Catholic groups joined abortion-rights organizations to support the bill after it was expanded to include health care for pregnant women and new mothers, sexual education programs, a nationwide adoption campaign, as well as federally funded contraception.
"Religious, secular - it doesn't make any difference," DeLauro said. "There was a sense that we had to move forward. For too long we've allowed principles to divide us on this contentious issue."
The 86-page bill - the Preventing Unintended Pregnancies, Reducing the Need for Abortion, and Supporting Pregnant Women Act - took four years to piece together. Conservative groups initially found it difficult to reconcile pregnancy-prevention programs and medical support for women with grants that will expand sexual education to include awareness about abortion and contraception.
But over time, supporters grew from one religious group to more than 40 faith-based supporters. Rachel Laser of the centrist Washington think tank, Third Way, who helped negotiate the bill, insisted "that no one compromise their core values."
"We broke bread with evangelical church leaders whom we had never spoken with before, we huddled with pro-choice women and men, secular and religious," Laser said. "We communed with Catholic leaders and leaders of other denominations."
The result is a bill that empowers young people with education and resources while instilling a set of religious and moral values in them, said the Rev. Carlton Veazey, president of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. "We can find something to share and that's the whole crux of the matter," he said.
The bill, crafted by Rep. Rosa DeLauro, an abortion-rights supporter from Connecticut and abortion opponent Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio, includes methods - namely, contraception - that some anti-abortion groups traditionally have rallied against.
Conservative evangelical and Catholic groups joined abortion-rights organizations to support the bill after it was expanded to include health care for pregnant women and new mothers, sexual education programs, a nationwide adoption campaign, as well as federally funded contraception.
"Religious, secular - it doesn't make any difference," DeLauro said. "There was a sense that we had to move forward. For too long we've allowed principles to divide us on this contentious issue."
The 86-page bill - the Preventing Unintended Pregnancies, Reducing the Need for Abortion, and Supporting Pregnant Women Act - took four years to piece together. Conservative groups initially found it difficult to reconcile pregnancy-prevention programs and medical support for women with grants that will expand sexual education to include awareness about abortion and contraception.
But over time, supporters grew from one religious group to more than 40 faith-based supporters. Rachel Laser of the centrist Washington think tank, Third Way, who helped negotiate the bill, insisted "that no one compromise their core values."
"We broke bread with evangelical church leaders whom we had never spoken with before, we huddled with pro-choice women and men, secular and religious," Laser said. "We communed with Catholic leaders and leaders of other denominations."
The result is a bill that empowers young people with education and resources while instilling a set of religious and moral values in them, said the Rev. Carlton Veazey, president of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. "We can find something to share and that's the whole crux of the matter," he said.
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