It’s so quiet she can almost hear the clock ticking. She notices that each girl in the waiting room has the same expression: sad, scared, embarrassed. There is nothing atypical about this particular waiting room. Plants are scattered around and big windows allow the sunlight to seep into the room. The ringing of telephones, fingers typing and the low voices of the women at the front desk are the only sounds. It seems like forever has passed when they finally call her name. “Marie Richards?” a woman’s voice calls out.

She gets up and follows the nurse into the examination room. After she undresses and puts on the gown she is directed to another room. This room is even starker. Two beds lie side by side. As the 4’11” brunette climbs onto the bed, the girl in the bed next to her is crying. When the doctor finally comes in for the pre-examination, he tells her that she might be too far along, and that she is going to have to wait a while. The crying girl leaves, and Richards watches as three or four other girls are shuffled in and out of the room. Finally her doctor comes back. It’s time. He applies seaweed around her vagina to help with expansion. Although she is groggy from the epidural, she still feels it being taken out of her, like someone is sucking out her insides. When it is finally over, she gets dressed and leaves the office. Crying all the way home, 15-year-old Marie Richards doesn’t quite grasp what has just happened. For the next two years she will cry herself to sleep every night.

Had Richards been a teenager today, the now 49-year-old mother of five might have done things differently. Coming from a very traditional Catholic family, the topic of sex just wasn’t something Richards could talk openly about with her mother. The only sex education advice Richards ever received was from her mother, and she said, “When you get your period, be sure to take showers so you stay clean, and be careful around boys.” Had Richards been exposed to more comprehensive sex education, or even had another person to confide in, her life might had taken a different course; one that didn’t include two abortions.

Reproductive issues are a hot topic in American society. Conservative religious organizations like the American Family Association and Focus on the Family, as well as the current administration, threaten the sanctity of reproductive rights. Many people fear that with the way fundamentalist Christian values are seeping into our government, it won’t be too long until reproductive rights will be completely taken away, or extremely regulated. Fortunately, there is an often unnoticed force fighting for reproductive rights everyday.

Across the country, religious organizations and clergy members are coming together to promote the rights and the choice for women and families. But with the fundamentalist conservative voice dominating the media as the main ideology of people of faith, these moderate pro-choice clergy members and religious organizations often get ignored, or even unheard.

Among the many faith-based groups actively in support of reproductive rights is the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC). Comprised of numerous national organizations from major faiths and traditions, religiously affiliated and independent religious organizations, and individual supporters of reproductive rights, the non-partisan RCRC provides spiritual counseling and medically accurate information about sex, sex education and contraceptives, as well as lend support for legal issues and political legislations. When most people just assume that any person of faith supports the pro-life argument, it’s refreshing and eye opening to learn that there’s a moderate voice of religious people who support reproductive rights. These rights include everything from abortion to access to contraceptives to comprehensive sex education.

Berit Muh, chairman of the Northern California RCRC affiliate believes there is more to reproductive rights than just abortion, and it is necessary to look at the broad spectrum of reproductive rights, including contraception and comprehensive sex education.

Spiritual counseling and advocacy are two of the main things the RCRC does to support reproductive rights. The RCRC believes that spiritual counseling is a necessary, effective tool for making decisions about one’s personal life. Whether someone wants to talk about birth control, pre-marital sex, abortion, etc., having another person of faith to confide in makes it a lot easier for people to understand and tackle any problems, concerns or questions they might have. For Richards, having a person of faith to talk to would have made her decision 34 years ago a lot easier.

“Because I couldn’t talk to anyone in my family about it, had I had someone to confide in, I might have done things differently and been in a completely different place than I am in today,” says Richards. “But it wasn’t until I went to my priest to confess my sins and he told me that he couldn’t forgive me for what I did, that I left the Catholic Church. I knew that God would forgive me and still love me. I just wish I had someone around who could have told me that at the time.”

In addition to providing spiritual counseling, the RCRC also provides political and legal advocacy. The RCRC currently supports No on California Proposition 85, which if passed would prohibit abortions for teens until 48 hours after their parents have been notified. The law forces teens to notify their parents, despite any uncomfortable circumstances at home or pressing medical issues. By opposing the proposition, the RCRC is acknowledging a key point as to why comprehensive sex education is necessary: if young people are given thorough, truthful, accurate information, then they can make their own choices.

“Overwhelmingly if someone is underage they will most likely involve a trusted advisor. Their only other option is to contest to the abortion in front of a judge, and many teens don’t know how to navigate through the legal system,” says Muh.

In terms of advocacy, the RCRC also submits Amicus Curiae briefs. These briefs, which stand for “friends of the court,” are given to the judge prior the court hearing in order to save time during the actual session.

“ We submit statements or statistics showing our support for something in court. The people pleading only have a short time to speak and usually have a lot of supplemental materials to present,” says Muh.

But where there is support for reproductive rights, there is always disagreement. Conservative organizations like Focus on the Family and the American Family Association believe that under no circumstance whatsoever is abortion okay. Furthermore, many fundamentalist who support organizations like Focus on the Family and the American Family Association, believe that even birth control and Plan B is morally wrong as well. It is these groups, as well as powerful outspoken political voices that adhere to the same ideology that make it difficult for organizations like the RCRC to get their voice and point of view out there to the masses. But despite the fact that these groups have a stronger presence in the media, pro-reproductive rights groups aren’t backing down anytime soon.

Being pro-choice does not mean being pro-abortion. The RCRC does not advocate abortion at all, but rather “advocate women and men making their own decisions about their reproductive life, in consultation with their faith tradition, a condition that is the very basis of an individual’s dignity and of moral behavior,” according to their website. Women are moral agents and the decision is between a woman and her god. It is the morally right thing to do to give a woman the choice over her body, whether one agrees with that choice or not.

After all, “God made us to have a choice to choose between right and wrong,” says Richards.