About us

Faith Voices for Reproductive Justice (FVRJ) is an initiative started by people from different Christian denominations in Northern Ireland in early 2020. We are open to members of all religious communities whose faith has led them to support safe abortion access as a necessary part of society. We want to help build an interfaith community of people who have had abortions or who support the right of others to make that choice for themselves.

We are clergy members, faith leaders and ordinary members of faith communities. 

We meet together face to face and online for discussions, training, presentations and to encourage and support one another in our work. 

We want to open up space in Northern Ireland for people who feel there is no where else to have open conversations about abortion. 

We also want to work for reproductive justice and equality in coalition with organisations, groups and individuals on the frontline of fighting poverty, discrimination and injustice.

Some religious groups have created stigma around abortion through public condemnation and private judgement of individuals. We feel a responsibility as people of faith to say sorry for that and to work to redress it. 

We want people to know that there are many different positions on abortion across different religious traditions and denominations. We are seeking to make space for all of those in a place where one religious interpretation on abortion has been allowed to dominate. 

Each of our members will have their own experiences and ethical questions that shape their beliefs on abortion, although we share some core principles:

• We believe in the inherent dignity of every person, including the sacred gift of sexuality. We recognise that the dignity of women has not been equally valued in society and that religious doctrine and power has been misused to harm women and girls over many generations. We believe that it is time for faith communities to reject entrenched patterns of sexism and patriarchy, listen to the stories of women and minority genders that have often been silenced, and be led by their voices.

• We approach abortion as a social justice issue, deeply aware of the systems of oppression at work in the world that mean ‘choice’ is not a equal playing field. This means we believe the state should provide abortion access as part of a wider vision of a society where everyone is free to chose not to have children, but also supported to have children and to raise them in safe and sustainable communities. This framework for approaching the issue is called Reproductive Justice.