Candlelight Roe Vigil, Dolores Park, SF

Candlelight Roe Vigil

This evening, Planned Parenthood Golden Gate coordinated "Faith in Choice: Reclaiming the Moral Highground," a community event to commemorate the 33rd anniversary of Roe v. Wade. A quiet candlelight vigil in Dolores Park was held in memory of those who died for lack of access to safe and legal abortion. There was a discussion of women’s lives before choice became law, followed by a candlelight procession to Congregation Sha'ar Zahav for a panel discussion with clergy.

The panel of clergy (two women and two men) discussed the long history of nationwide pro-choice action by clergy in the U.S., consistent with religious values of dignity, the sacredness of the human body, and an inherent belief in justice. They discussed their personal involvement with the pro-choice movement, and some of the heartbreaking, unjust situations they had witnessed. Reproductive rights (including the economic ability to access them) are fundamental human rights, and people of conscience must stand up for human rights. People of faith have often been pressured into silence about their pro-choice stances due to anti-sex traditions of their religions, but must speak and be heard as pro-choice voices of the faith communities in the ongoing battles against fundamentalism.

Faiths that Allow Choice Must Stand Up for Their Rights

An important point made by the rabbi was that those faiths which permit choice are at risk of losing an important religious freedom: to practice their faiths with regard to religious behaviors and obligations as their religious traditions dictate. To have the views of another religion imposed upon them impinges upon their religious traditions in reproductive matters.

LGBT and Reproductive Rights are Legally Intertwined

There are many members of the LGBT community involved in the struggle for reproductive freedom. Those who are not may be unaware that the same legal decisions that grant heterosexuals the right to privacy (from government intervention) in birth control and abortion were important decisions relied upon by the U.S. Supreme Court in Lawrence v. Texas (http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/02-102.ZO.html), the 2003 decision which invalidated laws against sodomy across the U.S. The LGBT community now relies on the same legal decisions (especially ‘Roe v. Wade’ and ‘Griswold v. Connecticut’) that the reproductive rights movement has been long served by, and which are under greatest threat by fundamentalist attacks. (See Wikipedia’s Lawrence v. Texas page at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_v_Texas for more information on this important Supreme Court decision.)

PPGG’s co-sponsors for this event were: Access/Women's Health Rights Coalition, California Women's Agenda, Healthcare Access for All, San Francisco NOW, and Social Justice Ministries of the First Unitarian Church of San Francisco.