817 34th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90089 ~ (213) 748-0200 Ext. 16 ~ info@californiarcrc.org

 


Prayerfully Pro-Choice

Issues

International Family Planning

Crisis Pregnancy Centers
 Reproductive Health Education
Later Term Abortion

Supportive Views from the Faith Community


International Family Planning 
There are currently close to 215 million women around the world who do not have access to reproductive health care or education.  There are roughly 536,000 maternal deaths every year around the world, the vast majority of which occur in the developing world. Maternal death, complications in pregnancy and birth, low birthweight, and many other serious health hazards can be vastly reduced through comprehensive reproductive health care and education worldwide.  Every woman should have the ability to plan and space her pregnancies in order to provide the best life for herself and her children.  California RCRC supports legislation which supports international family planning, and has partnered with various organizations to stand together in solidarity with women around the globe. 

Read below for more information on International Family Planning:

 FOUR REASONS TO PROTECT INTERNATIONAL FAMILY PLANNING FUNDING

Healthy Families, Healthy Planet
The Healthy Families, Healthy Planet initiative, funded by a grant from the United Nations Foundation, works to educate and mobilize United Methodists in the U.S. on the importance of maternal health and international family planning. Through grassroots education with targeted annual conferences and advocacy efforts with policy makers, the goal of the project is to achieve higher levels of foreign aid for international family planning through the U.S. government. 

For more information on Healthy Families, Healthy Planet, visit their website by clicking here.

International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF)
IPPF is an international family planning service provider and a leading advocate for sexual and reproductive health rights for all. They have offices in Africa, the Arab World, Europe, South Asia, East and South East Asia, Oceania, and the Western Hemisphere.  They provide a myriad of services to millions of people every year, including counseling, STD and HIV prevention, contraception, mother and child health, abortion-related services, infertility services and much more. IPPF works in partnership with like-minded organizations, galvanizing support to confront those who want to take away these rights.

For more information on IPPF, visit their website by clicking here.

The Council on Foreign Relations released a paper in April 2011 detailing the importance of International Family Planning in U.S. foreign relations and policy. Click here to read: Family Planning and U.S. Foreign Policy: Ensuring U.S. Leadership for Healthy Families and Communities and Prosperous, Stable Societies by Isobel Coleman and Gayle Tzemach Lemmon

Click here to read a recent study by the Guttmacher Institute entitled Contraceptive Discontinuation and Unintended Pregnancy: An Imperfect Relationship which looks at discontinuation of contraceptives by women in developing countries, and highlights the need for stronger family planning services around the world. 




 
Crisis Pregnancy Centers
Crisis pregnancy centers have the overall goal of preventing women from gaining access to abortions.  They have often used misinformation and deceit to attract vulnerable women and pressure them to make decisions with which they, rather than the woman herself, agree. Many have been accused of representing non-medical staff as having a medical degree, and of violating confidentiality of patients. There are over 4,000 of these centers operating in the United States, which is twice the number of reputable abortion providers. 

In 2006 Rep. Henry Waxman released a report regarding the nature of the information disseminated by such centers. To read this report, click here.

For more information on Crisis Pregnancy Centers from the National Abortion Federation, click here 

For information on Crisis Pregnancy Centers from Planned Parenthood, click here

To read an article about state funding for Crisis Pregnancy Centers, click here.

To read an article about Crisis Pregnancy Centers and recent attempts to legislate against false advertising, click here.

To read a Time Magazine cover story on Crisis Pregnancy Centers, click here.
It is important to note that there are numerous Crisis Pregnancy Centers in the State of California. 





Reproductive Health Education
Comprehensive reproductive health education is an essential part of a healthy society.  Access to this education, both in the United States and around the world, is constantly under threat.  Often ideologies are put before the very real fact that comprehensive reproductive health education makes for a healthier world population and reduces unintended pregnancy, maternal mortality and the spread of Sexually Transmitted Infections.

This 2006 scholarly article is a great overview of the importance of reproductive health education and the effects of abstinence only education in the United States:
Abstinence and abstinence-only education: A review of U.S. policies
and programs, John Santelli, M.D., M.P.H., et al.

The Guttmacher Institute has many informative publications regarding reproductive health education. Here is one, Adding it up: The benefits of sexual and reproductive health care, 2004.

For many important details regarding Sexuality Education in California, check out SEICUS's 2009 California Report.

Advocates for Youth published a report on the effectiveness of Abstinence Only education, which you can read here.

The following organizations have great information regarding comprehensive reproductive education.

The National Association of School Nurses

The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy






Later Term Abortion
Ideological dialogue has clouded the reality of what a Later-Term Abortion really is.  Many women get the the later part of their pregnancies only to find that, for a variety of reasons, their fetus is not viable or that to continue the pregnancy would put their life in imminent danger. In addition to the pain of this news, they are faced with the stigma associated with the procedure propagated by ideologues. There are extreme limitations on Later-Term Abortion in the United States, and they are done very infrequently. It is important to educate ourselves about the facts regarding this procedure and the real life effects it has on real people who have to make this tough decision. 

Reproductive Health Reality Check has a wonderful overview of Later-Term Abortion, which you can access here.

The Guttmacher Institute has a very informative short report on Later-Term Abortion Laws in the United States. Read it here. 

Read here for a powerful story of the reality of what one woman went through before and after undergoing a Later-Term Abortion procedure. 






Supportive Views from the Faith Community
Though it is often the anti-choice faith voice that garners attention, voices of faith have a long history of supporting reproductive health and choice. 

Catholics For Choice is an organization that has long voiced Catholic support for choice. Recently, in response to efforts by the religious Right to add religious exemptions to providing coverage for essential women's health procedures recommended by the Institute of Medicine, Catholics for Choice released a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius asking that those exemptions not be allowed. This letter was signed by numerous theologians and lists the theological reasons that they support comprehensive reproductive health services for all people.

Content copyright . California Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. All rights reserved.
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