An Open Letter to Our Community

This has been a time of tremendous change and growth for the NM Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, and the entire reproductive health, rights and justice movement. Four years ago, we faced a worldwidepandemic, supply-chain shortages, and governors in several states who used the pandemic as an excuse to limit access to abortion clinics. Then, in September of 2021, Texas enacted a six-week abortion ban, and less than a year later, in June of 2022, the US Supreme Court overturned over 50 years of reproductive freedom when they issued the Dobbs decision, overturning both the Roe v. Wade and the Casey v. Planned Parenthood decisions. We are immensely proud of how our staff, donors, and volunteers met these challenges. 

Once the Texas six-week ban on abortion went into effect, our organization experienced additional challenges never faced before. Not only did our number of callers nearly double, but we also had more volunteers, donors, and media contacting us. We had more meetings, collaborations, and public actions with our movement partners. The Dobbs decision only increased these challenges. We chose to rise to the challenge of meeting the practical support needs of every abortion seeker who contacted us and we have been able to continue our success of never turning away a single caller. 

Unfortunately, that meant building our internal infrastructure when time and capacity allowed, and our staff bore the brunt of that decision, especially vulnerable staff who identified as persons of color and/or members of the LGBTQ community. We are truly indebted to the current and former staff and board members who courageously called in our leadership to the structural racism within our organization and the infrastructure changes we needed to create a workplace that is aligned with the values of reproductive justice. 

To help us create a plan to make true, deep, and authentic changes in our organization we engaged several consultants who helped us identify gaps and illuminated where we had work to do across the organization, as well as assist us through a strategic planning process.  This included an organizational assessment and landscape research, including evaluating our work and relationships with community partners; developing a Theory of Change, strategic goals and priorities; program planning and improvement of internal operational systems; fund development and resource management; and board training. 

While we were engaged in the strategic planning process, we continued to recruit, hire, and on-board staff. We’ve grown from a staff of four (two full-time and two part-time) to fourteen (10 full-time, two part-time, and two high-school interns)!

The board received a three-year strategic plan in June of 2023 and we began the complex implementation process. While we have much more work to do, progress has been made in finances, budget, IT, staff recruitment, hiring and onboarding, and staff development, including anti-racism training, three-year communications and program plans, and funding strategies for those programs.

Some of our priorities for the next three years are:

1- Working always towards creating a reproductive-justice-aligned organizational culture of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. The board and I are committed to the deep internal work that will require us to recognize where we have caused harm, learn how we intentionally or unintentionally perpetuate white supremacy culture, and unlearn the pervasive ways it shows up across our organizations and movements.  

2- Providing regular staff development opportunities on the impacts and harms of white supremacy so our staff can serve our callers with safety and compassion.

3- Creating policies and procedures that can be a model for faith-rooted abortion funding and practical support programs for abortion seekers. This includes vetting and training volunteers on reproductive justice-aligned values including the impacts and harms of white supremacy so they can serve our callers with safety and compassion.

4- A significant revision of policies and procedures across the organization. Newly created staff committees are leading the changes within the organization through policy revision, incorporating staff wellness and safety, and adding benefits.

5- Expanding our services to Spanish-speaking communities and making our organization strongly bilingual.

6- Deepening our relationships and networks with faith leaders, congregations, and people of faith and conscience to transform the dominant narrative around abortion that perpetuates shame, judgment, and misinformation to one that centers bodily autonomy, reproductive justice, and the right to make decisions about one’s own body and reproductive health according to each individual’s faith and values. People of many faiths and of strong moral conscience support abortion access for all persons.

7- Providing significant staff compensation increases beginning in fiscal year 23/24 grounded in research-based living wage recommendations and yearly increases greater than cost-of-living working toward a thriving wage, which is defined as the income required to be able to cover necessities, with enough left over for discretionary spending and savings. Moving to a 35-hour full-time work week and continuing to build robust values-aligned benefits for our staff.

8- Continue to strengthen our infrastructure so we can implement a comprehensive strategic plan, grow our communications and advocacy, and continue to provide essential direct-service practical support to nearly four times the number of abortion seekers we served three years ago. 

The New Mexico Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice envisions a world where we recognize, affirm, and honor every person’s power to fiercely defend their bodily autonomy and access to reproductive healthcare including abortion. NM RCRC advocates for bodily autonomy by shifting religious and spiritual narratives and engaging in collaborative partnerships. We demand access to the full spectrum of reproductive healthcare, including abortion, for all persons.

This work is not just something we will do, it is who we will become. 

Signed,

Joan Lamunyon Sanford, Executive Director

and

the Board of Faith Roots Reproductive Action;

Yahaira Carreras-Cubillas

Maya Elrick

Terry Schleder