Society & Culture, Practice & Voice

Reproductive Rights are Civil and Economic Rights




What does reproductive freedom have to do with wealth or poverty? Everything! Women’s reproductive and economic freedoms do not, and have never, existed separately. Greater reproductive autonomy, whether in the form of access to birth control, abortion, paid family leave, or childcare affords women and children greater economic security and mobility. Expanding that autonomy will benefit not just individual women, but all working families.

Reproductive Justice & Freedom Meet Up 
Sunday, February 23 | 9 & 10:30 a.m. | Alliance Room, All Souls Church
Learn more about our involvement and work toward Reproductive Justice and Freedom, prepare postcards to send to state legislators, and determine how you can support women maintaining their own reproductive health decisions. 

Full protection of reproductive rights is indispensable to physical/mental health, economic opportunity and security for women and their families.

Those who continue to oppose full civil and economic freedom for women are showing great disregard for the meaning of real individual freedoms historically proposed as a foundational value of this country.

I believe State or Federal regulation of women’s reproductive organs is tantamount to State/Federal ownership, it is slavery!

No human should be forced to bear a child against their will and no child should be birthed into a life where they can’t be cared for appropriately, aren’t wanted or loved. We know full well the results of bringing children into such situations.  One economic and societal example is the effect of legalized abortion on crime. Researched by Steven Levitt and John Donohue, their studies showed that children who are unwanted or whose parents cannot support them are likelier to become criminals, and that there is an inverse correlation between the availability of abortion and subsequent crime.

100 Years of Women’s Right to Vote

2020 is the Centennial of the 19th amendment giving women the right to vote. Getting that right was a struggle that took decades to win, a fight we shouldn’t have had to fight.

Those decades were years in which women were owned by men as chattel and had no say so in their lives. This was codified in the law. We then had to fight to get access to birth control, another battle we shouldn’t have had to fight. 

And now, even though we have the vote, we are still fighting for the freedom to decide for ourselves whether, or when, we reproduce – this is a fight we shouldn’t have to fight! 

Women’s Suffrage Commemoration March & Rally

Saturday, February 22  |  11 a.m.

Tulsa Historical Society & Museum 
Commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment (Women’s Right to Vote) and Oklahoma’s Ratification of the Amendment on February 28, 1920. Participants are encouraged to

wear white and bring rally signs. 

The Fight Continues

Oklahoma is, once again, passing legislation that removes the access to abortion by criminalizing doctors who perform abortions. House Bill 1182 author Representative Jim Olsen (R)-Roland, said the goal of the bill is to eliminate abortion in the state. I have to believe that those who are ill informed or are willfully ignorant would advocate for what is essentially forced birthing.

It’s hard for me to understand that anyone who really cares about civil rights and freedom, or the welfare and well-being of children, would continue to intervene through legal restrictions in the personal reproductive decisions of the female citizens of this country.

You can learn more about where Oklahoma and other states stand and national initiatives to protect Women’s Reproductive rights with the Center for Reproductive Rights interactive map, breaking down “What would happen if Roe fell.”

A Straw Man Argument

The argument that abortion is destroying a life is a straw man argument that completely ignores the life of the woman. Those who bring life into this world, women, and are gracious enough to invite a potential life to share their body can be, in a free society, the only one to make that invitation and decision.

This is a fight we shouldn’t have to fight in a free country and everyone who believes in freedom needs to SPEAK UP AND SPEAK OUT against the forces that work to undermine the freedom of women and their families!

Join me, Nancy Coryell and other Reproductive Justice Champions at our Reproductive Justice & Freedom Meet Up, Sunday, February 23 at All Souls   

Reproductive Justice & Freedom Meet Up 
Sunday, February 23 | 9 & 10:30 a.m.


Learn more about our involvement and work toward Reproductive Justice and Freedom, prepare postcards to send to state legislators, and determine how you can support women maintaining their own reproductive health decisions. 

If you’re interested in the fight for reproductive freedom, join the Reproductive Justice Champions at All Souls! Email reproductivejustice@allsoulschurch.org.
*Cover Photo Credit: https://reproductiverights.org/what-if-roe-fell


Barbara Bannon and Nancy Coryell are the Co-Chairs of the Reproductive Justice Team of All Souls. Read more from Barbara Bannon in her post, Freedom to Choose.

1 Comments

  1. Celebrate Women - BeyondBelief

    […] Join All Souls Reproductive Justice Team Join other All Souls members as Reproductive Justice Champions and determine exactly what role you can play in keeping free from State and Federal control of women’s reproductive health decisions. Email for more info reprojustice@allsoulschurch.org and check out Barbara Bannon’s latest post, Reproductive Rights are Civil and Economic Rights. […]

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