After talking about reproductive freedom, the SMUUF Women’s group (WUUFS) determined to “do something” and write a Letter to the Editor of the San Marcos Daily Record. The letter, published on Sept 1, 2024, was composed by Social Justice Co-Chairs Jeannie Lewis and Shannon FitzPatrick and approved by the SMUUF Board of Trustees. It defines our UU position to stand by women in their right to make their own health decisions including contraception, pregnancy, and abortion. See the text submitted below! Hope you can grab a copy!
Dear Editor,
The San Marcos Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (SMUUF) wants to make a public statement that we stand by women in their right to make their own reproductive decisions with their doctor and without governmental interference.
Back in 1963, our national organization, the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations (UUA), passed a series of resolutions to support “the right to choose contraception and abortion as legitimate legal constitutional rights.” Our congregations have long supported a woman’s right to make decisions about her own body.
Before Roe, it has been estimated that over a million women a year were having illegal abortions with about 10,000 deaths annually from those procedures. Many women have had abortions who desperately wanted a child, but nature had other ideas. The current laws of this state ignore that and try to force us back into those dark days. Those laws and the courts that interpret them ignore the thousands women and their physicians who want to help their patients in these most difficult times.
The men in power should not fear women and denigrate their choices. We continue to stand by the UUA resolutions and the women they support.
Sincerely,
Jeannie Lewis, Social Justice Co-Chair
Shannon FitzPatrick, Social Justice Co-Chair
San Marcos Unitarian Universalist Fellowship
San Marcos Unitarian Universalist Fellowship 