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Bodily autonomy—the right to control one’s own body and what happens to it—encompasses core values of Unitarian Universalism, including individual liberty, gender equality, and the freedom to choose when, how, and whether to form a family or raise children.
For decades, reproductive rights and the rights of LGBTQIA+ people gained support and legal grounding. But we are now inundated by jarring reminders that bodily autonomy cannot be taken for granted, and UUs are organizing to protect vulnerable communities.
“Attacks on reproductive care and gender-affirming care are one and the same,” says Pam French, an organizer with the UU Justice Florida Action Network (UUJFAN), a statewide justice ministry for members of forty-five Unitarian Universalist congregations. “[These attacks] are an assault on the emotional well-being of others and acts of control.”
“The fight for bodily autonomy will be generations-long, so this grassroots organizing is how we will care for each other, build skills and power, and sustain our rights for the long haul.”
Those seeking to strip away hard-won progress in numerous states have engineered passage of abortion bans and anti-trans laws, including Florida’s 2024 near-total abortion ban. UUJFAN responded by joining a coalition working to enshrine a right to abortion in the state constitution via ballot initiative this November.
Passing the amendment will be a fierce battle, and likely a close one. The pro-reproductive rights side has prevailed in all seven states to host ballot questions on abortion following the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson ruling, but Florida now requires ballot initiatives to win a 60-percent supermajority to pass, and 64 percent of Floridians say abortion should be legal in most or all cases.
French says that hurdle is more challenging than opinion polls suggest because typically “our young people do not vote.”
The Unitarian Universalist Association’s UU the Vote initiative has joined the effort to change that. Reproductive rights initiatives in Florida and Arizona are among UU the Vote’s top priorities in 2024. And despite the challenge of a hostile state government, French is confident the initiative will pass.
She proudly notes that, in the latest legislative session, grassroots groups “stopped or neutralized twenty-one of the twenty-two [anti-LGBTQIA+] bills with our intense, collective opposition . . . and the one bill that did pass is likely unconstitutional.”
Texas UUs Turn to Grassroots Organizing to Defend Bodily Autonomy and LBTQIA+ Rights
Meanwhile in Texas, the Unitarian Universalist Justice Ministry (TXUUJM) has been fighting off a torrent of bills attacking bodily autonomy. Though some damaging laws passed in the latest legislative session, including banning trans kids or adults from receiving gender-affirming medical care, advocates helped block dozens of anti-LGBTQIA+ bills.
Additionally, the state not only criminalized abortion following Dobbs v. Jackson, but the attorney general also announced plans to prosecute anyone involved in a medically necessary abortion, even when a fetus will never be viable and a patient’s life is endangered.
- Get updates from UU the Vote for opportunities to engage in helping turn out voters for key bodily autonomy initiatives in Florida, Arizona, and other states.
- UUA Reproductive Justice page is the entry point to learn how the UUA frames reproductive issues and to find dozens of great resources.
- Our Whole Lives is a comprehensive sexuality education program developed jointly with the United Church of Christ.
People who cannot afford to travel hundreds of miles to a safe state are being forced into dangerous pregnancies and expenses for medical and childcare that can trap families in poverty. Surveys by the Guttmacher Institute have found BIPOC, and low-income people are over-represented among those seeking abortions.
Despite the harsh political climate in Texas, Rev. Erin Walter, TXUUJM minister and executive director, points to numerous examples where grassroots organizing is improving people’s lives. Local efforts defeated dozens more bills attacking the LGBTQIA+ community in the last legislative session and yielded proactive victories, too.
A progressive coalition, including Texans Care for Children, TXUUJM, and Friendship-West Baptist Church drove passage of a new law in January that extends Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program postpartum coverage from two months to a full year.
“It took two legislative sessions of organizing and lobbying, but this law will save lives," Walter says. She also stresses that vital work often occurs after passage or defeat of bills.
In 2023, the state passed a law authorizing public schools to hire unlicensed religious chaplains in lieu of certified counselors. Along with religious freedom concerns for UUs, Walter cautions that a fundamentalist chaplain counseling pregnant teens or LGBTQIA+ children, as many proponents hope, could harm students psychologically.
Even when destructive legislation passes at the state or national level, hyperlocal organizing can blunt the impact. Local Texas school boards had to vote on whether to allow religious chaplains as counselors.
“We waged a multi-pronged interfaith campaign with Texas Impact that sent our people directly to school boards all over the state,” Walter says. Ultimately, only three out of more than 1,200 Texas public school districts approved enabling chaplains to serve as school counselors.
Walter warns against ceding the language of faith to extremists, saying, “UUs must reclaim our place as people of faith in the public square for the sake of justice. And through this work, we can make other powerful, positive changes in our local communities. The fight for bodily autonomy will be generations-long, so this grassroots organizing is how we will care for each other, build skills and power, and sustain our rights for the long haul.”