Katie Kraft of the United Methodist Church Global Board of Church and Society explains advocacy and discusses UMC's Healthy Families Healthy Planet initiative. She explores why Christians are called to advocate for family planning services.

1. Faith-Based Advocacy for
Family Planning
June 2013

2. Healthy Families, Healthy Planet
• Project of GBCS since 2010
• Funded by United Nations Foundation
• Seeks more U.S. funding, better policies
for global family planning/maternal health
(FP/MH)
• Works to educate, train, and mobilize
people of faith on FP/MH

3. What is advocacy?

4. Advocacy
 A project, program or programmatic approach
that seeks to address the structural and
systemic causes of poverty by changing
policies, systems, budgetary allocations,
practices and attitudes that perpetuate
inequality and that deny justice and human
rights.
• Seeking justice
• Increasing the sustainability of our work
• Building movements for change

5. Why are we called to be
advocates?
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he
has anointed me to proclaim good news to
the poor. He has sent me to proclaim
freedom for the prisoners and recovery of
sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free”
Luke 4:18

6. What do you need to do advocacy?
• Passion
– Using your personal stories
• Knowledge
– Resources
– Messaging
• Opportunity
• Plan

7. Passion: Sharing our Stories
Beatrice Gbanga

8. The Case for Family Planning
Every day…
• 800 women die from pregnancy/childbirth
• 16,000 suffer birth-related injury/ infection
• 8,3000 neonatal infants die
• 2,700 children are left motherless
And 99% of these deaths and injuries occur in
the developing world.
Source: World Health Organization

9. The Family Planning Gap
Worldwide, more than 222 million women
would like to delay or prevent pregnancy but
have no access to or education about
modern, safe contraceptive methods.

10. The Ripple Effect
• A healthy woman earns and owns more.
• A smaller family has more resources to send
children to school and feed them.
• A well-educated girl delays marriage and has
fewer children.
• A community with healthy women has a
larger, more vibrant workforce.
• Slowed population growth = less strain on
land, resources

11. Broad, Faith-Based Support for
FP & Maternal Health
• Presbyterian Church USA
– Call[s] upon all Presbyterians …to show, in Christlike manner,
respect and appreciation for persons who conscientiously choose
not to conceive children; and to avoid all references to these
persons that might be taken as indicating that their choice in this
regard is selfish, irresponsible, or contrary to Christian faithfulness.
• Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
– “The decision of how many children to have and when to have them
is a private matter for the husband and wife.”
• Evangelical Lutheran Church of America
– “We recognize the need for contraceptives to be available, for
voluntary sterilization to be considered, and for research and
development of new forms of contraception.”

12. United Methodist Social Principles
• ¶162 III. The Social Community
– “People have the duty to consider the impact on the total
world community of their decisions regarding childbearing
and should have access to information and appropriate
means to limit their fertility” (Paragraph K)
– “We affirm the right of men and women to have access to
comprehensive reproductive health/family planning
information and services that will serve as a means to
prevent unplanned pregnancies, reduce abortions, and
prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS” (Paragraph V)

13. CCIH Resources
http://tinyurl.com/CCIHResources
• Getting
Contraceptives to
Health Facilities: 10
Questions for
Community-Based
Groups to Consider
• Do you think you
know where
Christians stand on
family planning?
Think again!
• Family Planning
Reduces Abortion -
and Faith Groups Can
Help
• Men and Family
Planning
• Family Planning:
Another Way Faith
Groups Can Prevent
HIV Infections

14. FP Resources
• World Health
Organization.
Family Planning:
A Global
Handbook for
Providers
• Georgetown
University IRH: Love,
Children and Family
Planning
• IMA World Health:
Christian Sermon
Guide to Save the
Lives of Mothers and
Newborns: A Toolkit
for Religious Leaders

15. FP Resources
• K4 Health
Family
Planning
Advocacy
Toolkit
• Launches
July 2013
www.k4health.org/toolkits/family-planning-
advocacy

16. Maternal Health Messaging
• Maternal mortality is one of the leading causes of death for
women of childbearing age worldwide. Every two minutes, a
woman dies as a result of complications during pregnancy or
childbirth; for every woman who dies, another twenty suffer
disability.
• Every year, millions of children are left motherless and vulnerable.
Infants whose mothers die within the first six weeks of their lives
are up to 10 times more likely to die prematurely than those
whose mothers survive.
• When a mother is present to raise her children, research shows
that family income is higher, kids stay in school longer, and
families and communities are stronger.

17. Family Planning Messaging
•222 million women in developing countries want to avoid
pregnancy but lack access to or information about
modern contraceptives.
•Family planning services, such as contraceptives, save
hundreds of thousands of women’s lives and prevent
millions of new cases of HIV each year.
•Family planning services in developing countries help
women to safely space their pregnancies. Women and
men who have access to contraception are more
empowered to take care of their family’s health and
education, which builds strong communities.

18. Faith-Based Messages
• As Christians, we claim the promise of Jesus in the Gospel of John
that he came to bring his followers abundant life.
• God calls us to respond to the suffering in the world, to love our
neighbors throughout the world. As followers of Christ, we are
members of the same body. The loss of one member is a loss for all.
• Women are crying out for not only their own survival but also the
survival of their families and communities. They deserve access to
services and care that empower their personal decision-making. As
a global church, we are called to eradicate systems of oppression
and marginalization that inhibit women's well-being.

19. What family planning messages
resonate in your faith community?

20. Building an Advocacy Plan
• Goal
• Targets
• Building community support
• Tactics
– Events
– Meetings
– Media

21. 21
Who do you want to reach?
•Elected officials (and their staff)
•Denominational Leaders (Bishops, Conference Leaders,
etc.)
•Community leaders
•Congregational leaders
•Congregation members
Targets

22. 22
Who can help you spread your message?
•Partnerships are a great way to reach new audiences and
expand your message
•Organizations with overlapping missions or common
interests should be your first priority
•Consider if there is a gap in your organization you need to
fill (Well-known leader? Specific constituency?)
•Partnerships might useful for one event, or it might be
helpful for a longer-term process
Building Partnerships

23. 23
How can you most effectively spread your message?
•Hosting events and/or recruiting partners for hosting
events
•Organizing meetings or speaking to groups of existing
meetings
•Conducting outreach to local media through
spokespeople or with Op Eds and Letters to the Editor
•Other ideas for tactics?
Planning Your Tactics

24. What can we achieve as advocates?

25. Institutional Change
Maternal Health: The Church’s Role
(2012 General Conference)
• Calls upon all local congregations to:
– Support United Methodist projects around the world
working on maternal health and family planning.
– Advocate with policy makers at all levels to improve
maternal health through increased access to maternal
health and family planning services.
– Support local health initiatives that expand access to
information and services for women

26. If current unmet need was met…
• Unintended pregnancies would drop by
two-thirds, from 80 million to 26 million
• 26 million fewer abortions,
• 7 million fewer miscarriages
Source: Guttmacher

27. 27
Advocacy Planning Exercise