A Faith Perspective on Coloradans for Protecting Reproductive Freedom
On Tuesday, January 23, I was honored to share remarks at the Pueblo launch of Coloradans for Protecting Reproductive Freedom. Along with our partners at Interfaith Alliance of Colorado and their coalition, we are beginning a petition signing campaign to get a measure on the ballot in November that would enshrine abortion rights in the Colorado constitution, protecting us from future attempts to strip us of reproductive freedom by lawmakers. A part of my role as Minister of Gender + Sexuality Liberation is advocacy on issues in the public sphere that will lead to all people having greater liberation with regard to their gender + sexuality. Abortion and reproductive healthcare are matters of gender affirming care, autonomy, and bodily choice that are absolutely tied to Christian values of respect, community care, and freewill.
We here at Juniper Formation are available to bring petitions to churches and communities around the Front Range, preach on matters of reproductive choice, and consult with congregations about engaging their congregants as advocates in the public square! Don’t hesitate to reach out. And if you’d like to support our new and growing Gender + Sexuality Ministry so we can do more work like this, donate here.
Below are my remarks from Tuesday.
Good evening and thank you Pueblo for having me here, even if I am from the Springs. I recognize that I am a guest in your community tonight and I'm grateful to be here in solidarity with the statewide coalition for Coloradans for Protecting Reproductive Freedom. I am indeed Rev. Candace Woods, my pronouns are she/her, and I serve as, get this title, Minister of Gender and Sexuality Liberation at Juniper Formation United Church of Christ. We're a progressive, inclusive Christian community and we meet on Zoom! I am newly ordained and it just feels right and good to me that tonight, and this event, is my first time wearing a clerical collar in public. You see, my community ordained me to the work of proclaiming loudly and publicly that all people are beloved by God and all people deserve freedom and liberation with regard to their gender and their sexuality and their reproductive choices. I am grateful to serve a congregation that believes that abortion access and reproductive justice are matters of faith.
I found out I was pregnant the day before my final year of seminary began. I was in a loving relationship, but my birth control had failed, and I had already made the choice to not become a parent in that way. I am so grateful that I had access to abortion care. I am grateful that I had the financial capacity to obtain an abortion. I am grateful that my faith community supported and held me during that time.
The week that I had an abortion was the same week as the confirmation hearings of now Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. It was not lost on me that I was acting on my constitutional right to an abortion just as plans to strip that right from me were being enacted. With the Court’s horrific decision to overturn Roe, it is now our responsibility to fight for our rights again, state by state. While I’m grateful for all the work that has been done in the state legislature to protect reproductive rights, enshrining in the Colorado Constitution our right to make our own pregnancy decisions will keep us protected as politicians come and go. We, the people of Colorado, have got to protect ourselves and one another. Fighting for this amendment is one way that we can do that.
And the people of Colorado includes all of our public servants! Every Coloradan deserves to have access to all forms of reproductive healthcare, including abortion, regardless of where they work. It is mind-boggling to me that our public employees like firefighters, teachers, legislative aides, and state and county social workers, do not have access to abortion care through their insurance, simply because of where they work. I am supporting this amendment because it will remove government interference between an individual and their healthcare decisions. Employers should not get to make healthcare decisions for you, especially when the employer is the state!
As we launch this amendment into the public sphere, may we hold each other with tenderness, recognizing the ways in which our stories and our choices and our very lives are wrapped up in the text of this document. May we be in solidarity with one another as we bear witness to the very real ways that policy impacts our lived experiences. And may we shore one another up with strength and hope as we fight once again for our reproductive rights and the rights of those who come after us. May it be so.