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promoting abortion The NEA outlines its position on abortion in its own Resolution I-12 (2003), which states: "The NEA supports family planning, including the right to reproductive freedom." And according to the NEA's own literature, "reproductive freedom" includes the right to have an abortion.1 This same resolution also "urges the implementation of community-operated, school-based family planning clinics that will provide intensive counseling by trained personnel." But many teachers believe it is the primary responsibility of parents, not schools, to provide counseling on such a controversial issue.
The Washington Times reports that a group of pro-life delegates at the NEA's 2003 annual convention pleaded with the union to stop using the term "reproductive freedom" in its resolutions because it advocates abortions for teenage students.2 Addressing a family planning resolution, a junior high school language arts teacher named Judy Burns said, "We'd like it if the NEA would stick to education issues [with its yearly public policy resolutions] and not promote abortion" by using the term "reproductive freedom." Delegates from Ohio, California, Kentucky, and New York also asked the NEA to remove the language, claiming NEA officials have defined the term "reproductive freedom" to include partial-birth abortions. Even the majority of pro-choice advocates do not advocate this extreme position. Regardless, the delegates' request was denied. Showcasing the diversity of religious beliefs represented by individual NEA members, the Times also says that "more than one-fourth of the 30 [resolution hearing] speakers were pro-life delegates who pleaded with fellow delegates to be consistent with calls for tolerance, diversity, respect for the religious views of all people, and human rights for the unborn." Resolution I-12 also "urges the government to give high priority to making available all methods of family planning to women and men unable to take advantage of private facilities." Does this include "private facilities" like Planned Parenthood? The NEA won't say. During resolution hearings, David Kaiser, an elementary school guidance counselor, asked the chairman of the NEA Resolutions Internal Editing Committee, Shirley Cherry, to define these "private facilities." Her response: "I am not prepared to answer that question to you at this time."4 And legally she doesn't have to. Even though NEA members are forced to support these resolutions through mandatory union dues, the NEA isn't required to disclose much because it's a private organization. We do know a few things for certain. The pro-abortion National Organization for Women has received financial support from the union.5 And both the NEA and the American Federation of Teachers (AFL-CIO) are listed on the Leadership Council of the Pro-Choice Public Education Project (PEP), which "consists of pro-choice organizations that can take the messages of PEP to each of their constituencies."6 The council includes about 40 other pro-abortion organizations such as Planned Parenthood, NARAL Pro-Choice America, and the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. 1 Deceptions By The Radical Right Against The National
Education Association, NEA Human and Civil Rights, 1994, 9. |