Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice

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The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC) is an American abortion rights organization founded in 1973 by clergy and lay leaders from mainline denominations and faith traditions to create an interfaith organization following Roe v. Wade, the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion in the U.S. In 1993, the original name – the Religious Coalition for Abortion Rights (RCAR) – was changed to the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice.

Leadership

President and CEO: Katey Zeh
Chair of the Board: The Reverend Dr. Alethea Smith-Withers, pastor of the Pavilion of God (Baptist), Washington, DC
Chair of the Coalition Council, Kate Lannamann, J.D.

Activities

RCRC give spiritual guidance to women seeking abortions; doctors, doulas, and other health care professionals; other clergy; and reproductive rights activists. They advocate for laws that expand access to reproductive care.

In 2012, the Ohio RCR successfully opposed two bills in the state legislature that would have defunded Planned Parenthood and instituted a heartbeat bill. The executive director of the Ohio RCRC at the time, Cathy Levy, said part of their success was due to RCRC "coordinat[ing] clergy to testify in opposition" to the bills.

RCRC members bless abortion clinics. In the late 2010s, RCRC members in Texas blessed several Whole Woman's Health clinics, a plaintiff in Supreme Court cases Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt and Whole Woman's Health v. Jackson.

In 2021, Kentucky RCRC paid $12,000 for religious, pro-abortion digital billboards in Louisville, Nicholasville, and Paducah, Kentucky. They raised over $8,000 towards the advertisements through a fundraising campaign on GoFundMe. The wording of the advertisements drew critiques from religious anti-abortion groups.

In response to the 2021 Texas Heartbeat Act, the New Mexico RCRC financially assisted women who traveled from Texas to New Mexico to receive abortions.

National Black Church Initiative

In the late 1990s, Carlton W. Veazey became the president and CEO of RCRC. During first few years of his leadership, he created the National Black Church Initiative within RCRC. He and other members of the initiative founded the National Black Religious Summit on Sexuality. The first summit was held on June 12–13, 1997, at Howard University. Over 250 people attended and events included worship services, workshops, and keynote speeches. Calvin O. Butts, Henry Foster, Kelly Brown Douglas, and Walter Fauntroy spoke at the summit.

In 2000, RCRC and the NBCI launched a seminary project in order to educate Black clergy on issues of sexuality, reproductive choice, HIV prevention, and teenagers and sex.

List of state affiliates

In 2023, the national RCRC dissolved their state affiliate network. Prior to that dissolution, the state affiliates and state networks of the Religious Coalition were involved in advocacy, education, community service, and implementing RCRC programs such as Clergy for Choice, All Options Clergy Counseling, and Spiritual Youth for Reproductive Freedom at the community and state level.

California
Colorado
Connecticut
Illinois
Indiana
Kentucky
Minnesota
New Mexico
Ohio
Oklahoma
Wisconsin

Member organizations

Coalition Council Members:

Rabbinical Assembly
United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism
Union for Reform Judaism
Women's League for Conservative Judaism
Episcopal Church (United States)
American Ethical Union National Service Conference
Society for Humanistic Judaism
Presbyterians Affirming Reproductive Options (PARO) of the Presbyterian Church (USA)
Jewish Reconstructionist Federation
Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association
Central Conference of American Rabbis
North American Federation of Temple Youth
Women of Reform Judaism, The Federation of Temple Sisterhoods
Women's Rabbinic Network of Central Conference of American Rabbis
The United Church of Christ
Unitarian Universalist Association
Unitarian Universalist Women's Federation website
Young Religious Unitarian Universalists
Continental Unitarian Universalist Young Adult Network
American Jewish Committee
American Jewish Congress
Anti-Defamation League
Catholics for Choice
Christian Lesbians Out (CLOUT)
Church of the Brethren Women's Caucus
Disciples for Choice
Episcopal Urban Caucus
Episcopal Women's Caucus
Hadassah, WZOA
Jewish Women International
Lutheran Women's Caucus
Methodist Federation for Social Action
NA'AMAT USA
National Council of Jewish Women
Women's American ORT
YWCA of the USA

Reception

RCRC is criticized as advancing a "theology of choice" in Holy Abortion, a 2003 book co-authored by United Methodist Michael J. Gorman, a professor at St. Mary's Seminary & University in Baltimore, Maryland.