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Religious Coalition for Reproductive ChoiceReligious Coalition for Reproductive Choice
Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice
Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice
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  • Home
  • About
    • Mission Statement
    • History
    • Even Before Roe: RCRC’s Legacy of Bold Clergy Activism
    • Leadership
    • Staff and Consultants
    • Affiliates & Community Partners
    • Founding Members
    • 2019 Annual Report
    • 2019 IRS Form 990
    • 2019 Audited Financial Statement
    • Donor Privacy Policy
  • Programs
    • Religion & Repro Learning Center
    • Clinic Blessings
    • Compassionate Care Workshop
    • Compassion School
    • Sacredly Speaking
    • Midwest-Southern Regional Strategy
    • Advocacy
  • Issues
    • The Moral Case
    • Reproductive Health
    • Reproductive Rights
    • Reproductive Justice
  • Religious Resources
    • Faith Perspectives
      • Protestant
      • Catholic
      • Unitarian Universalist
      • Jewish
      • Muslim
      • Hindu
      • Buddhist
    • Prayers
    • Blog
    • Health Center/Clinic Pamphlets
  • Press Room
  • Contact
  • Donate
    • New or One-Time Donation
    • Membership Renewal
    • Recurring Monthly Donation

Midwest-Southern Regional Strategy

Throughout RCRC’s history, we have mobilized people of faith to address critical reproductive freedom issues and communities often overlooked.

The goal of our Midwest-Southern Regional Strategy is to heighten the awareness and activism of people of faith in states most heavily impacted by reproductive oppression. We do this by working in collaboration with a cross-section of local religious and community partners who bring their voices and votes, their compassion and commitment, to address the challenges, barriers, and injustices that impede reproductive freedom and dignity.

Why the Midwest and Southern Regions?
RCRC's Midwest-Southern Regional Strategy Areas of Focus
RCRC's Midwest-Southern Regional Strategy Areas of Focus
    • The Midwest and Southern regions are key incubators for conservative political strategies which then spread across the nation through organized political initiatives, such as Project Blitz.
    • Under the umbrella of a push for small government and tax breaks for the wealthiest, many Midwest and Southern politicians set the stage for insufficient funding for public health, public education and other critical public programs needed for full reproductive justice and freedom.
    • Because public services are regarded as an afterthought or necessary evil in states throughout these regions, women’s healthcare ranks poorly relative to other U.S. regions.
    • Overly burdensome and medically unnecessary Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers (TRAP) laws designed to shut down reproductive health care clinics reduce the overall number of available abortion providers.
    • Access to reproductive health services is extremely limited and maternal and infant mortality rank highest in these regions.
    • The Bible Belt culture prevalent in the Midwest and South sets the stage for conservative Christianity to be used as a smokescreen for social oppression, especially racism, classism, sexism, homophobia, ableism, xenophobia, and reproductive injustice.
    • Issues of faith and racial justice have deep impact on people’s lives and politics in this region, which is home to the majority of Black people in the U.S.
Our Strategies
    • Partner with RCRC Affiliates in this region to engage in targeted action with local faith-based and community organizations.
    • Build coordination and collaboration between multifaith religious leaders and local reproductive justice advocates.
    • Establish multi-issue, multi-cultural, multi-generational networks to uplift the intersectional social issues of race, income, gender, healthcare, education and more that impact what women and families need to experience the highest quality for their own lives.
    • Equip cadres of faith and community leaders of courage to speak to and with wider cross-sections of communities about the realities of reproductive oppression.
    • Increase the capacity of faith leaders to engage with compassion and mobilize with awareness about the urgent reproductive issues in their states.
    • Bring multiple progressive religious voices to impact community organizing and policy-making across the Midwest and South, especially through involving more congregations.
Leaders of Moral Courage Fellowship, Multiple Southern States 2019
Leaders of Moral Courage Fellowship, Multiple Southern States 2019
Materials from KY and MS Discovery Days, 2019
Materials from KY and MS Discovery Days, 2019
Our Activities

RCRC’s relationship-building, advocacy and communications activities in the South and Midwest include:

    • Acting as liaison between faith leaders and advocacy groups in Southern states working on social, racial, and reproductive justice issues such as sex education, religious freedom, and maternal mortality.
    • Collaborating with other organizations in support of decisive U.S. Supreme Court cases for reproductive freedom, such as Whole Woman’s Health vs. Hellerstedt, and more.
    • Advocating and communicating at the Georgia State Capitol during Georgia’s legislative session. With other progressive organizations, RCRC opposed the state’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act and state funding for crisis pregnancy centers which in practice coerce people against the option of abortion. We also joined in calling for a ban on assault weapons.
    • Developing a program to engage Black pastors in the South in advocating for reproductive freedom and compassionate care.
    • Presenting discussions and trainings on the intersection of faith and reproductive health, rights, and justice at conferences and organizations in the region.
    • Co-hosting screenings and expert panel discussions on documentary films (e.g. Trapped, Birthright) about highly restrictive state abortion laws and pregnancy-related arrests, especially in the South and Midwest.
Clergy Consultation Service Event, Mississippi 2019
Clergy Consultation Service Event, Mississippi 2019
Scene from Bei Bei film with RCRC Indiana leaders, 2019
Scene from Bei Bei film with RCRC Indiana leaders, 2019

RCRC’s Clergy and Laypeople Proudly Support:

Access

Access to comprehensive sexuality education

Planning

Family planning and contraception

Affordability

Affordable child care and health care

Adoption

Support for and access to adoption services

Abortion

Safe, legal abortion services, regardless of income or circumstance

Recent Blog Posts
  • Compassion: Toward a More Just Society
    September 7, 2020
  • Letter to the Trump Administration Regarding Fetal Tissue Use in COVID-19 Vaccine Research
    June 12, 2020
  • God’s Song in a Strange Land (2020 Mother’s Day Tribute)
    May 6, 2020
Contact Us
1413 K Street NW 14th Floor Washington, DC 20005

(202) 628-7700
info@rcrc.org

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