Pro-Life Teachers Lobby Against Their Union's Support for Abortion
by Jim Brown
April 23, 2004
(AgapePress) - Pro-life teachers are criticizing the National Education Association (NEA) for its involvement in a pro-abortion demonstration slated for Sunday in the nation's capital.The NEA, Planned Parenthood, NARAL Pro-Choice America, and the American Civil Liberties Union are among the many organizations sponsoring Sunday's "March for Women's Lives." The march is being billed as the largest pro-abortion demonstration in the nation's history. However, a pro-life educators group called "Teachers Saving Children" says the NEA should not be engaging in such political activity.
The group's executive director, Connie Bancroft, says the NEA adheres to a one-sided resolution on abortion. She says that although the NEA states the resolution is neutral on the issue, it is "basically" in favor of women's right to choose.
"It clearly has a very strong pro-abortion stance," Bancroft says, "and we see them sponsoring, time and time again, pro-abortion activities, etcetera, because of this resolution." According to Bancroft, the union has not once endorsed or sponsored pro-life activities like "The March for Life," which is held annually in January on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade.
Bancroft, herself an NEA member, says the NEA -- which boasts more than two-million members and describes itself as "the largest professional employee association in the nation" -- needs to stick to educational issues instead of supporting the slaughter of unborn children.
"They claim that this is an education issue because they need to represent their membership, which is made up mostly of women," she explains. "So they see this as taking care of their clientele or their members because it's a 'women's issue.' We see this clearly as a political issue -- and they need to be out of the political arena."
Bancroft says her group of more than 3,000 pro-life teachers is dedicated to establishing respect for all human life from conception to natural death.
