National Faith Leader on Biden EO to Ensure Reproductive Care Access:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, July 8, 2022
MEDIA CONTACT
Austin Schuler, aschuler@faithinpubliclife.org, 540-280-3393
National Faith Leader on Biden EO to Ensure Reproductive Care Access:
“We urge President Biden to continue with us on this journey and use his power and influence to ensure equitable access to abortion care.”
Washington, D.C.–Today, President Biden issued an Executive Order aimed to ensure access to abortion medication and emergency contraception.
Below are statements from Faith in Public Life CEO Jeanné Lewis, as well as faith leaders in Ohio and Georgia.
Jeanné Lewis, CEO of Faith in Public Life:
“President Biden’s Executive Order to protect access to certain reproductive health services is a necessary first step toward redressing the grave attack on women and pregnant people’s dignity and moral agency through the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. In order for these policies and programs to be effective, they must be equitable and ensure those most deeply harmed by injustices in our medical and legal systems can access them, including Black, Brown, Asian and Native people, LGBTQ people and low-income people. As people of faith we believe that everyone has certain God-given freedoms. We urge President Biden to continue with us on this journey and use his power and influence to ensure equitable access to abortion care. We will continue to fight for these freedoms and advocate for just policies and systems that enable all of us to live, and raise children if we decide to do so, in safe, sustainable, healthy communities where everyone can thrive.”
Rev. Dan Clark
Faith in Public Life, Newark, OH
“I’m grateful that President Biden is using his executive power to hold a rogue and extremist court accountable. The Supreme Court is legislating from the bench in ways that do not represent the will of the American people, including the majority of people of faith. My hope and prayer is that today’s Executive Order Protecting Access to Reproductive Health Care Services is a first step in offering all people the freedom to flourish and the dignity to make their own choices.”
Rev. Kathy Manis Findley
Macon, GA
Affiliated with the Alliance of Baptists and
the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship
“With a strong sense of relief, I heard the words of President Biden in his executive order that would provide protection, care and freedom for women and their families. This is from his opening paragraph:
“Fundamental rights – to privacy, autonomy, freedom, and equality – have been denied to millions of women across the country, with grave implications for their health, lives, and wellbeing.”
My faith and sense of justice affirms that freedom and equality are basic human rights for all people, male and female. The ultimate example is in the many ways Jesus of Nazareth stopped to give his full attention to women, affirming their personhood, encouraging their freedom, and healing them in the ways they needed healing.
Jesus is our example, and faith is our mandate for the holy mission of working for the freedom and dignity of every woman and girl, indeed every person. As a Christian minister, I hear the call clearly: ‘Let the oppressed go free.’”
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Faith in Public Life is a national movement of clergy and faith leaders united in the prophetic pursuit of justice, equality and the common good. Together, with a network of over 50,000 leaders, they are leading the fight to advance just policies at the state and federal level that affirm our values and the human dignity of all.