Co-authored with Sheila Katz and Sara Hutchinson Ratcliffe
As leaders of organizations that represent countless people of faith across the nation, we want to set the record straight: We are people of faith and we are pro-choice. We believe in the dignity and worth of all people, and that belief drives our commitment to ensuring universal access to affordable health-care coverage, including coverage for abortion care.
Recently, Democrats for Life, an anti-abortion group claiming to represent the faith community, sent a letter from 100 Christian pastors and theologians to the Democratic National Committee urging the party to rescind its support for ending the Hyde Amendment, which bans federal funding for abortion except in cases of rape, incest, and life endangerment.
But Democrats for Life doesn’t represent the faith community. Many people of faith support access to abortion and oppose the Hyde Amendment and its restrictions, which further enshrine systemic racism and strip the poor of access to abortion. Policies that deny abortion coverage to individuals based on their income level or the type of health insurance they have contradict shared core values and principles of our faiths. Supporting this injustice goes against everything clergy of all faiths should represent.