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Pro Every Life, Pro Woman, Pro Reproductive Justice for All: A Manifesto

Target:
everyone

We, the undersigned, affirm that:


We are pro every life, before, during, and ever after birth. 



Therefore we vigorously, straightforwardly advocate women's right to nonviolent (voluntary, nonabortion, abortion-reducing) sexual and reproductive choice.

Reproductive justice for all
--is the surest guarantee for women's right to nonviolent choice.
--encompasses both the unborn and the already-born.
--requires male responsibility.

We will carry out, or continue carrying out, whatever actions are within our nonviolent power to make this vision of life, compassion, and justice for all into global reality.

We, the undersigned, affirm that:


We are pro every life, before, during, and ever after birth. 



Therefore we vigorously, straightforwardly advocate women's right to nonviolent (voluntary, nonabortion, abortion-reducing) sexual and reproductive choice.

Reproductive justice for all
--is the surest guarantee for women's right to nonviolent choice.
--encompasses both the unborn and the already-born.
--requires male responsibility.

We will carry out, or continue carrying out, whatever actions are within our nonviolent power to make this vision of life, compassion, and justice for all into global reality.

Pro Every Life, Pro Woman, Pro Reproductive Justice for All:
 A Manifesto


We, the undersigned, affirm that:

  • We are pro every life, before, during, and ever after birth.

  • Therefore we vigorously, straightforwardly advocate women's right to nonviolent sexual and reproductive choice.

What is nonviolent choice? The ability to exercise freedom of conscience in making voluntary, nonabortion, abortion-reducing sexual and reproductive decisions.  This freedom depends on one's fully informed consent regarding different options, their benefits, and their drawbacks. It depends just as much on the social power to carry out one's values and preferences.


Nonviolent choice includes, among other possibilities:


--Whether, when, how, and with whom (among consenting adults) to have sex.  Philosophical and religious/spiritual views of sexual ethics for consenting adults are too numerous and divergent for state power to favor and mandate any particular one of them without treading on vital liberties of conscience, expression, association, religion, and privacy.


--Whether to prevent conception or seek it out. While we recognize the goodness of biological and social parenthood, we recognize equally the goodness of other-than-parental life courses, and the right of individuals to pursue these as desired.


--Which specific pregnancy prevention method(s) to adopt or not adopt.  We are cognizant here of the need for the utmost safeguards against coercive population control, unethical pharmaceutical experimentation, and sterilization abuse.

These are all dangers, and dangers with long histories -- to the poor, the colonized, people of color/ethnic minorities, and people with disabilities.  At the same time, we name as unjust the coercive denial of access to the prevention method(s) of one's own choosing.


--Whether, in the event of a crisis pregnancy, to pursue parenting, adoption, guardianship, or some other safe care arrangement.


  • Reproductive justice for all is the surest guarantee for women's right to nonviolent choice

What is reproductive justice?  In the context of all other human rights and needs, reproductive justice secures and protects reproductive rights and needs through deep and enduring solutions to multiple, interacting forms of institutionalized oppression, including:


--Denial and neglect of essential health, educational, and social services.

--Systematic discrimination against women, children, people of color/ethnic minorities, the global poor, immigrants and refugees, people with disabilities, HIV/AIDS-affected persons, and LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered) persons.

--Economic injustice.

-- Environmental destruction.

--Armed conflict.


  • Reproductive justice for all encompasses both the unborn and the already-born.

Many reproductive justice activists endorse a general right to abortion.  However, we call for a different -- and, we venture, ultimately more inclusive -- vision of reproductive justice.  We identify abortion not as a right across all circumstances, but as generally a form of violence against women and unborn children that arises from and continues reproductive and other social injustices.

  • Male responsibility is indispensible to achieving reproductive justice for all, for the unborn and already-born alike.

Men, individually and especially as a class, exert unjust physical, social, and economic power over women.  These power imbalances throw such heavy, lifelong, and life-stunting burdens on women as the devastation of violence; economic dependency; HIV/AIDS; and undesired pregnancies posing the horrible "choice" between abortion on the one hand and abandonment to unsupported single motherhood on the other. 

This dynamic of abuse and neglect is reinforced by an ideal of limitless feminine self-sacrifice that represents a pernicious and fundamental form of disregard for women's precious human lives.  All men must learn what it means to have nonviolent power-with -- not power-over -- women. We stand with -- and in some cases are ourselves--undergoing this profound transformation, and encourage all men to brave it themselves and become the best human beings they can. 


 

  • We will carry out, or continue carrying out, whatever actions are within our nonviolent power to make this vision of life, compassion, and justice for all into global reality.

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We signed the "Pro Every Life, Pro Woman, Pro Reproductive Justice for All: A Manifesto" petition!
# 20:
12:54 am PDT, May 5, YVONN TEH, California
AFFORDABLE HEALTH CARE, CONTRACEPTIVES AND PROPER SEX EDUCATION are the best gifts America can give her people at every level. Abortion is fatal child abuse and our society has become desensitized killers of hope at every level. For America to be the great nation that she can be again, we must protect our children by any means necessary. ADOPTION (SAFE HAVEN) is the best gift a mother can give to her newborn.
# 19:
8:16 am PDT, May 3, Mary O'Connell, New York
# 18:
7:06 pm PDT, Apr 27, Yolanda Waldeck, West Virginia
# 17:
2:39 am PDT, Apr 22, Daniel Schiavetta, New York
This is something that badly needs to be said, that *isn't* being said, and that many people would agree with if they were presented with it.

Voting!

# 16:
12:34 am PDT, Apr 22, Alastair McIver, United Kingdom
I believe that it is not as members or non-members of any given religion that we are obliged to make a stand for peace, but as human beings. War, terrorism and abortion are all forms of violence which should be equally deplored by any who claim to stand for peace, which as human beings we all should. Those who love peace and oppose violence should think very carefully about whether that is consistent with their views on abortion. I also seek to combat the view that those who oppose abortion must oppose birth control, sexual freedom, gay marriage, etc. I for one oppose abortion because, and only because, its function is to destroy human life.
# 15:
3:40 pm PDT, Apr 21, Kim Dukes, Ohio
# 14:
12:20 pm PDT, Apr 21, Terry L. west, West Virginia
# 13:
1:32 pm PDT, Apr 20, Linda Naranjo-Huebl, Michigan
# 12:
1:13 pm PDT, Apr 19, Justyna Makola, Poland
# 11:
3:57 pm PDT, Apr 18, Lauraly Charlton, Canada
# 10:
4:45 pm PDT, Apr 14, Frank Herrmann, Florida
# 9:
2:30 pm PDT, Apr 13, Sarah Barbour, Illinois
Human rights are interconnected. The idea that one group can have rights only at the expense of another group's rights is contradictory, false and unjust.

For the past four years I have volunteered at a crisis pregnancy center, where we try to help women find nonviolent alternatives to abortion.

# 8:
3:39 pm PDT, Apr 12, Joan Hall, California
An important step in the pro-life mission is promoting the understanding of the pro-life ethic as a human rights issue. Too many people make the mistake of thinking that the rights of the unborn are in direct opposition to the rights of their mothers. I applaud the authors of this petition for standing up for the rights of both.

I have started an email group (ppj@yahoogroups) that supports the consistent life ethic (more specifically, it is for pro-life people who identify themselves as politically liberal). I also have a blog (lamom.blogs.com) where I write about different things that I consider to be pro-life issues, including abortion, but also war, poverty, racism, and capital punishment.

# 7:
7:05 am PDT, Apr 12, Erika Parsons, New York
# 6:
3:08 am PDT, Apr 12, Àndrew Eager, Ireland
www.rollbackamnesty.com
# 5:
1:03 am PDT, Apr 12, David Dunkleberger, Pennsylvania
# 4:
8:13 pm PDT, Apr 11, Anthea Blake, Massachusetts
# 3:
12:28 pm PDT, Apr 11, Name not displayed, Germany
# 2:
11:55 am PDT, Apr 11, Jennifer Roth, Illinois
I have been looking my entire adult life for a group that is unabashedly pro-woman, pro-life, pro-contraception, and pro-sex-education. It just makes so much sense to me, and I believe that there are many more of us out there who are currently unrepresented.

Since 1995, I have maintained web sites and mailing lists for pro-life liberals and others interested in justice for both born and unborn. My current project is called Turn the Clock Forward, and stands for the principle that the most just and effective way to end abortion is through social progress, not by going back to the attitudes of the 1950s. I have worked for the Congressional campaign of a consistent-life-ethic candidate, served on the board of Consistent Life, and donated money and time to organizations working for human rights, both for the born and the unborn.

# 1:
10:51 am PDT, Apr 11, Mary Krane Derr, Illinois
We should not have to make the "choice" between the unborn and the already-born. As they used to say in the labor union & antiapartheid movements, "an injury to one is an injury to all." No one, whether unborn children or women or anyone else, can be left out of our human rights vision and action.

I am currently editor of the Nonviolent Choice Directory, www.nonviolentchoice.info and www.nonviolentchoice.blogspot.com Nonviolent Choice, a proud cosponsor of this petition, is a global resource directory of abortion-reducing and otherwise life-affirming resources helpful to a wide range of people--whether the individual looking for information on birth control options, the woman facing a crisis pregnancy, or the policy maker or concerned citizen wanting to make a life-affirming difference--just to name a few examples of who might benefit from the website.

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