Pro-Choice Is Pro-Life

Rabbi Paul Citrin – NM RCRC 40th Anniversary Benediction

September 30, 2018

We are privileged to celebrate today the fortieth anniversary of the NM Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice.

We celebrants are pro-life because we recognize the sanctity of human personality, the divine image in women as well as men, the challenge to live lives of conscience. Because we are pro-life, we are pro-choice.

We celebrants are pro-life because we recognize that real life has real pain, conflicting values and shades of gray. But because we embrace the struggle to live with responsibility and integrity. Because we are pro-life, we are pro-choice.

We celebrants are pro-life because we honor those who nurture life – our wives, our mothers, our sisters. We trust their judgement, their experience, their love of life. We join them in being pro-life by being pro-choice.

Today, we commit ourselves anew to the foundations of mature life–to freedom of thought, to ethically considered action, to devotion to family. We therefore vow to stand for mature life, even in the face of hierarchies, legislatures, courts, and sub-cultures, whose dogmas stunt the fullness of our humanity. We pray the the Source of life will sustain our resolve to be sensitive, loving, reverent caring people of life and choice.