Universal Human Rights and Reproductive Freedom by Ryan Smith
“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.”[i] This year marks the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. Eleanor Roosevelt was the driving force in the drafting of the document that would become the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. The United States has historically been a beacon for human rights, especially sexual and reproductive health rights. However, the current Administration in Washington has sadly changed that dynamic.
With faith and politics, gender matters. The relationship between sexism and religiosity have played a role in anti-choice legislation around the world. Numerous articles have tracked the relationship between womanhood, the societal default to women and motherhood and masculine perspectives which maintain those assumptions have impacted women’s health laws, specifically those around reproductive choice which have decreased women’s equal rights.
At the Presbyterian Ministry at the United Nations, Presbyterian Church (USA), I have actively participated in Ecumenical Women, a group founded five years after the Beijing Platform for Action (1995) was adopted to advance women’s rights around the world. Divergent views within the faith community led a group of faithful women to take action to support the rights of women and girls because of, not in spite of, their faith.
Ecumenical Women’s faithful vision is a vision for us all:
Members of Ecumenical Women affirm God’s preferential option for the marginalized and that Jesus has confirmed God’s will that the world “may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). We envision a human community where the participation of each and every one is valued, where no one is excluded on the basis of race, ethnicity, sex, age, religion or cultural practice, and where diversity is celebrated as God’s gift to the world.
Within our Biblical interpretation, Jesus’ ministry of healing and community with women and other marginalized peoples indicates a deep respect for and equality with women. Yet, the world does not reflect his actions. Many women are not able to participate in the world’s abundance in the same ways men can. Many women are excluded from access to rights, resources, services and protection, including economic opportunities, labor rights, health services, land and – most crucially – education. Women do not have equity with men in fulfillment of civil and political nor economic, social and cultural rights anywhere in the world. Women living in poverty and from indigenous and minority ethnic backgrounds are the most excluded.
It is our understanding that the church at its best can be a center which models policies which reinforce gender equality, creates budgets which reflect a desire to invest in women’s equality, and which develops networks of women and men who resist systems of patriarchy, domination and abuse. We believe that the church is a powerful transformative vehicle for the teaching, protection and enforcement of women’s rights and gender equality when its constituents and leadership are informed and empowered.[ii]
My own denomination, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), has been wrestling with the question of sexual and reproductive health rights since the 1970s. Through the guidance of the Holy Spirit through our General Assemblies, “we affirm the ability and responsibility of women, guided by the Scriptures and the Holy Spirit, in the context of their communities of faith, to make good moral choices in regard to problem pregnancies.”[iii]
And this year, the 223rd General Assembly (2018) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) recognized the importance of gender equality in all its forms:
These affirmations and this commitment are rooted and grounded in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, in the breadth of Scripture, and in the Reformed Tradition. Scripture affirms that all people are created in the image of God. In God’s creation, we see and experience God’s image expressed across a broad and life-giving expression of gender. Honoring the breadth and variety of our gender identities and expressions is one of the ways we can come to an even deeper understanding of who we are created to be in relationship to God and each other. The Hebrew Scriptures, the Gospel, and the Reformed Tradition affirm the dignity and worth of all people and call on individuals and communities to work for the well-being and protection of all people. Because we recognize that people of all gender identities are created equally in the image of God, we also recognize that we share a mutual obligation to stand for the right of all people and all gender identities and gender expressions to live free from discrimination and from violence. The image of God expansively and specifically includes people of all gender identities including transgender, cisgender, gender non-binary people, and people of all gender expressions.[iv] (emphasis added)
The impact of sexism and women’s rights must be a concern for all Christians. When we as Christians recognize that each person bears the image of God, or Imago Dei, we must recognize that different rights for different persons are an attack on God herself.
I believe with all my heart that we must join Eleanor Roosevelt in working close to home to change the broader world. She asks, “Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home – so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighborhood (s)he lives in; the school or college (s)he attends; the factory, farm or office where (s)he works. Such are the places where every man, woman and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerned citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world.”
It means we should work in our congregations, our towns and cities, our national capitals and across the world in global partnership to dismantle the damaging effects of sexism and toxic masculinity and work for a world where we can faithfully pray that we have indeed worked in Imago Dei, the image of God in all of us.
As a cisgender, white male living in the United States of America, I have enjoyed freedoms and rights that are undeniable. I worship with and work for a mainline protestant denomination which have been staples in American society. This privilege has been a blessing. With that blessing, we are called to work for the rights of all!
In working for justice and rights around the world, we must work together. There is an African proverb that says, ‘if you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.’
As the United States gears up for midterm elections and we are awaiting confirmation of a Supreme Court Justice, we are called to work together for the rights of all whom God has created.
[i] http://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/ Article 1
[ii] https://ecumenicalwomen.org/about/
[iii] https://www.presbyterianmission.org/what-we-believe/social-issues/abortion-issues/
[iv] https://www.pc-biz.org/#/committee/3000013/business
Ryan Smith is the Director of the Presbyterian Ministry the United Nations. As the Presbyterian Church’s Representative to the United Nations, Ryan advocates for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s General Assembly as well as the World Communion of Reformed Churches policies to the United Nations community. Prior to joining the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Ryan served as a policy analyst for special populations at Catholic Charities USA where he focused on issues of human trafficking, immigration and refugees and juvenile justice. Ryan currently serves as the Vice President of the Board of Directors for Partners for Just Trade. He holds bachelors’ degrees in economics, political science and German, a certificate to teach English as a foreign Language (TEFL) and a masters degree in diplomacy and international relations with specializations in international economics and development and international organizations. Ryan has also taught and researched as a United States Fulbright Scholar in Germany.