More Than A Choice: A Progressive Vision for Reproductive Health and Rights

 By Jessica Arons

Progressives who are committed to reproductive health rights currently face hostile opposition from social conser¬vatives and self-doubt among allies. Americans, in their discomfort with abortion, have disengaged from a narrow and entrenched debate that is seemingly unconnected to other reproductive rights issues. Women’s rights organizations, fighting constant attacks on their core beliefs, must spend their time playing defense rather than defining who they are and the values for which they stand.

To overcome these chal¬lenges, the Center for American Progress, a nonpartisan research and educational institute, has articulated a vision for reproductive health and rights which can broaden the current discourse beyond the stagnant abortion debate and be integrated into a larger progressive agenda.

In More than a Choice: A Progressive Vision for Reproductive Health and Rights, the Center outlines how progressives can expand the definition of reproductive rights by embracing equally the rights to have or not have children—with a partner of one’s choosing and in a time and manner that honors one’s conscience and life cir¬cumstances —and by placing abortion within its appropriate context as one of a wide range of important repro¬ductive health issues.

The reasons for doing so are indicated in the title of the paper itself. First, the reproductive choices people face in their daily lives involve much more than abortion – whether it be what type of birth control to use, how to stay healthy during a pregnancy, or how to pay for a Pap test. Second, some women do not experience their reproductive deci¬sions as “choices” because of current or past restraints that have kept those decisions from being meaningful. Third, the policies essential to achieving reproductive health and rights are critical to a larger progressive agenda; they are not an expendable set of issues that progressives can choose to endorse or excise whenever it seems politically expedient.

The Center’s comprehensive agenda begins with a commitment to four basic cornerstones:

1. The ability to become a parent and to parent with dignity;

2. The ability to determine whether or when to have children;

3. The ability to have a healthy pregnancy; and

4. The ability to have healthy and safe families and relationships.

These categories naturally are interrelated and somewhat fluid, but each is a necessary component in building a society in which government policies support, enable, and protect (rather than interfere with) people’s personal decisions regarding sex and family formation.

The cornerstones are based on the recognition that people need to live and work in communities that are free from violence and environmental toxins to have healthy pregnancies and raise strong families. Individuals need eco¬nomic stability, educational opportunities, and family-friendly employment policies to be good parents and good employees. Women and their partners need safe and affordable contraception and abortion care to raise the children they already have, plan for future children, or prevent childbearing. And everyone needs accurate medical information and affordable health care to achieve all of these objectives. The full document describes in more detail how the policies encompassed by each of these cornerstones (or their absence in the U.S.) affect individuals and families.

Our paper also lays out several principles that provide a framework for reproductive health and rights and connects those issues to overarching progressive values, specifically:

* Recognition of the right of all people to make reproductive and sexual decisions in a   neutrally supportive environment;

* Support for the moral agency of women;

* Respect for pregnancy and mothering by all women, regardless of race, ethnicity, age, ability, sexuality, or income;

* A belief that all children deserve to be wanted, loved, and nurtured;

* Reliance on scientific and evidence-based research to inform public policy decisions;

* Dedication to gender equity in all areas, including government, education, employment, athletics, sexual relationships, and the family; and

* Freedom of gender expression.

As progressives, we believe in the equality, dignity, and inherent worth of every person. We are committed to opportunity for all, compassion for those who face hardship, and justice for the oppressed. We respect moral autonomy and freedom of conscience. We strive to balance individual freedoms with the common good. We advocate for shared responsibility; safe, healthy, and diverse communities; fair compensation for hard work; and a decent standard of living. We think an open and effective government has an essential role to play in partnering with other societal institutions to promote and ensure these values.

For too long, conservatives have tried to claim the moral high ground as exclusively their own and progressives have responded with arguments about rights rather than values. A dialogue about rights is important; but progressives must be equally comfortable discussing their moral reasons in support of reproductive freedom. Whether championing women as morally competent decision-makers, reminding people that progressives care about the well-being of children, or insisting on scientific integrity, our values are what will motivate our base of supporters, win over new audiences, and help us build coalitions with other progressive movements.

Finally, as part of this vision, the Center offers a progressive view of the government’s role in ensuring genuine reproductive freedom. We argue that our gov¬ernment should provide a just, safe, and diverse society that balances individual liberties with the common good. It also should guarantee the conditions necessary for exercising reproductive freedom and defend the individual autonomy and moral agency required to make complex personal decisions about sexuality, reproduction, and family.

It is insufficient for the government only to acknowledge particular rights and refrain from interfering with them. The government should respect the right of people to make private decisions themselves, but the progressive view demands that the government do even more: by removing regulatory obstacles, protecting people from interference by private individuals and institutions, and providing individuals and families with concrete supports.

It is time to reclaim the reasons for progressives’ historic support of reproductive rights. We hold sacred the dignity and inalienable rights of all human beings, including their reproductive and sexual rights. We know that efforts to restrict reproductive, sexual, and parenting freedoms are tied to, and often vehicles for, other forms of discrimination that we oppose. And we understand that possession of reproductive and sexual rights deeply affects a person’s ability to exercise all other human rights.

Progressives have a unique opportunity to redefine the very terms of the debate over reproductive and sexual rights by re-establishing the context in which decisions about pregnancy are made, connecting support for reproductive rights with broader progressive values, working in alliance with other progressive movements, and promoting the role of government in respecting and protecting our rights. Questions about reproduction and sexuality affect every human being and no progressive agenda is complete without these issues.

To download or read the full report, please visit http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2006/09/more_than_a_choice.html.

Jessica Arons is the Director of the Women’s Health & Rights Program at the Center for American Progress.