A #vision4abortion and adoption aren’t mutually exclusive | JustChoice

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A #vision4abortion and adoption aren’t mutually exclusive

If you’ve been following Choice Network social media channels the last couple of weeks, you’ve noticed we’re raising our voice when it comes to being a pro-choice open adoption agency. During this historic week of the 45th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade court decision that legalized abortion in the US, we’re celebrating being one of more than 140 organizations and leaders committed to a new vision for abortion.

A #vision4abortion started last year when reproductive health, rights and justice organizations convened 28 creative leaders committed to creating culture change around abortion. These leaders became the Culture Change Strategy Group. They are advocates, researchers, media makers, artists, health professionals, pastors, communicators, policy experts, activists and more. The group produced a vision for changing the culture around abortion. And as of now, more than 140 (and counting!) organizations and leaders have signed on to this vision.

The vision is audacious, because they asked an audacious, unbridled question:

What if our wildest dreams about abortion culture became reality? What are those dreams?

Here is the kind of future the group came up with, and what we and many other organizations decided to align around:

  1. Abortion is understood as a basic human right, an essential part of healthcare and a normal part of life.
  2. Everyone can access safe and affordable abortions regardless of age, class, race, gender identity, ability, geography, immigration status and insurance status.
  3. Providers and people who have abortions are supported and respected and do not fear or experience judgment, stigma, discrimination, violence or criminalization.
  4. All people can talk openly about abortion with sensitivity to the complexity and nuances of individual experiences.
  5. Every person is able to make personal decisions about abortion based upon their own beliefs and values.
  6. Media supports the dignity and diversity of individual reproductive decisions and decision makers. Media truthfully and authentically represents abortion and refrains from sensationalizing the experience.

At Choice Network, we trust pregnant people and support them in pursuing the choice that’s right for them – whether that’s adoption, active parenting or abortion.

Pregnant people’s choice is their choice.

We believe all people have the human right to maintain personal bodily autonomy, have children, not have children, and parent the children they have in safe and sustainable communities (credit to Sister Song!).

We carry no agenda, no judgment and no persuasion; instead, we bring accurate, timely and complete information on choices. Once a choice is made, we connect pregnant people to the experts and help them navigate the systems needed to execute their decision. We stand beside them, not pushing them to move quickly but to act when fully informed and ready. We trust them from the beginning to end and trust they know what is best for themselves and their family.

We believe this with our whole hearts and live this in everything we do. And we do not believe this love for and focus on the pregnant person is at odds with our love for children. We envision a world where people love the pregnant person as much as they love the unborn and where people love kids in the foster care system as much as they love the unborn. 

If there are 60 million unborn babies in this world, that means there were 60 million pregnant people who needed us – in addition to the 400,000 kids in the imperfect foster care system who need us, too.

So on this 45th anniversary of the power of choice, we reaffirm our vision. Pregnant people deserve to know all of their options. They deserve to be loved freely no matter their choice.

For more information on the #vision4abortion, visit www.vision4abortion.org.

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