Democratic Party Platform
RCRC's president comments

 

Last week, the Democratic Party Platform Committee issued forward-looking planks on abortion and reproductive health care. As a person of faith, I congratulate the Democrats for their stances and also ask them to commit to doing more.

The Democratic platform supports family planning and comprehensive sexuality education as well as safeguarding Roe v. Wade and a woman’s right to choose.

Religious denominations are staunch advocates for family planning, comprehensive sexuality education, and quality health care - not only because they can prevent unintended pregnancies but also because they enable people to live healthy, responsible lives. That should be a goal for politicians and pastors alike.

We have one of the highest rates of unintended pregnancies among industrialized countries. Making abortion harder to access is not the answer. It would be wrong and dangerous to women's lives to do that. Education and health services are a step in the right direction. We need much greater political support for meeting these basic needs.

The Democratic platform also takes two other positions that are important to people of faith. It pledges to end health insurance discrimination so that prescription contraceptives used by women throughout their reproductive lives will be covered along with other medicines. And it calls for compassionate care for rape victims – although it fails to call for universal access to emergency contraception.

Finally, the party pledges to achieve greater health care coverage – but does not mention including abortion in covered services. Including abortion services in a national health plan will be controversial and contentious – but we must remember that there are at least one million abortions a year in the United States and women deserve to have their decisions respected and to have the full range of reproductive health care services covered.

A national election is a time for hope and promise. I urge all parties to leave behind partisan bickering over abortion and focus on expanding family planning services and comprehensive sexuality education. As soon as the Republican platform is available, I will comment on that on our website.