“We’re encouraging pro-choice Catholics at all levels, from the pews to the White House, to speak up about how they reconcile their faith, belief and their support of abortion access,” said Jamie Manson, president of the abortion rights organization. “The religious beliefs of one group should not infringe on the rights and freedoms of anyone else.”
Just as it had a field organizer in Ohio last year as it promoted training and messaging about its abortion-rights views, Manson said Catholics for Choice will likely do the same in Florida, which is one of about a dozen states that could have a ballot measure related to abortion this year.
The view from the stage before March for Life rally began in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 27, 2017. (RNS photo/Adelle M. Banks)
Brent Leatherwood, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, said he plans to represent his organization at the national march, as has long been its tradition. In contrast to Manson’s view about abortion rights and religious freedom, he said: “You can’t have rights that are at the expense of a life, especially a defenseless innocent life.”
Leatherwood said the road ahead will be a prolonged one for those who share his opposition to abortion.
“I think the recent setbacks at the state level with ballot initiatives, various proposals in legislatures,” he said, “(are) just a reminder that this is going to be a long path that we’re walking. And even though we may get various proposals passed or policy enacted, this question is not something that can be solved purely through policy. It is still very much a heart question.”
The debates will continue across the country in different states immediately after Friday’s national march. On the next day, Women’s March has planned a national mobilization event in Phoenix to mark the 51st anniversary of the Roe decision as abortion rights activists in Arizona collect signatures for a ballot measure about access to abortion.
“We all know what this fight is about. It’s bigger than Roe,” said Rachel O’Leary Carmona, executive director of the Women’s March, in a statement. “And we have no doubt that the electorate’s rejection of radical anti-choice bans will unite a diversity of voices and people from across the country and turn them out to the polls in the 2024 election.”
This article originally appeared here.
