Press Release

Humanists Ask Congress Not to Curtail a Woman’s Right To Choose

For Immediate Release - Contact: Roy Speckhardt (202) 238-9088

(Washington, DC, August 20, 2003) “Confirming our fears, the Bush administration continues to feverishly block reproductive choice at every turn. Now politicians are attempting to interfere with the responsibility of physicians to use their best judgment in serving the reproductive health needs of women. Government should not be in the business of making complex medical decisions. Women should be left free to follow their own individual conscience in deciding if and when to become a mother,” said immediate past president of the American Humanist Association (AHA), Edd Doerr.

Opponents of a woman’s right to choose have coined the term "partial birth" abortion, although the expression has never appeared in the medical literature. Both chambers of Congress passed bills to ban the procedure this year, and President Bush has promised to sign the forthcoming compromise legislation. Pro-choice proponents have threatened to file a suit that will almost surely be decided at the Supreme Court.

The AHA continues to support the United States Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision recognizing the constitutional right to privacy that protects the right of every woman to free reproductive choice.

“The freedom to make decisions regarding one’s body is one of the most fundamental human rights that exist. Thousands of children go unwanted, yet anti-choice activists would force a woman to have a child, whether she wants to or not, or is able to adequately care for a child or not—even if it would gravely imperil her health! Their blind zealotry knows no reason,” added AHA president Mel Lipman.

Lipman continued, “The best way to prevent abortions is not by forcing a woman to bear a child but through complete reproductive health information and services that include access to contraception. Opponents of choice suffer from a severe case of historical amnesia—they would have us go back to the dismal days of back-alley abortions and the subjugation of women.”

Concluded Doerr, “Emotional fallacies and distorting language do not change the egregious fact that anti-choice zealots are trying to deny women freedom of conscience. They are sanctioning blunt intrusion into the most private decision she can make.”

The American Humanist Association is the oldest and largest Humanist organization in the nation. The AHA is dedicated to ensuring a voice for those with a positive outlook, based on reason and experience, which embraces all of humanity.

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