As RCAR and later as RCRC, this organization has unified not only people of different faiths, but also people of different races and ethnicities to advocate on reproductive issues.
In 1984, RCAR created the Women of Color Partnership Program (WCPP), which throughout the ‘80s collaborated with other groups such as the Black Women’s Health Project, the National Organization for Women’s Women of Color Program, the American Civil Liberties Union Reproductive Freedom Project, the National Abortion Rights Action League and Planned Parenthood.
In 1989 Patricia Tyson, director of RCAR, signed on to the “We Remember” statement organized by Donna Brazile, then executive director of the National Political Congress of Black Women. The statement expressed Black women’s deep opposition to public policies controlling their reproductive lives, policies rooted in the oppression of black women since the days of slavery.
In 1990, RCAR co-sponsored a meeting of more than 30 Native American women representing more than 11 nations from the northern plains. The Agenda for Native Women’s Reproductive Rights was forged at that meeting.
Women of color have taken many important roles in the history of this organization which recognizes that restrictions on reproductive freedom disproportionately target poor women and women of color across our spiritual and faith traditions.
When the “We Remember” brochure was republished in 1994, three women of color, all in leadership at both RCRC and WCPP — Rev. Alma Faith Crawford, Mary Jane Patterson and Beverly Hunter — signed on to it.
In 1993, RCAR broadened its mission to include related issues of reproductive health and justice. The reproductive justice movement sees intersectional challenges to women’s reproductive lives. It recognizes power inequities inherent in our society’s institutions, environment, economics and culture.
We stand in solidarity with the reproductive justice movement and a broad based human rights agenda that focuses on the most marginalized among us. RCRC endorses public policies that ensure the medical, economic and educational resources necessary for healthy families and communities equipped to nurture children in healthy, safe environments.
In 1994, RCAR renamed itself the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, reflecting the diversity of faith traditions the organization represents.
Since then, controversies over issues of sex, sexuality, reproductive health and reproductive freedom have grown and intensified. RCRC’s activities have expanded in response.