Annual Faith and Choice Forum Set For April 8

ALBANY, NY (04/02/2008)(readMedia)-- SUNY Albany’s Project SHAPE, St. Rose VOX, and Upper Hudson Planned Parenthood (UHPP) will present the seventh annual “Faith and Choice Forum” on Tuesday, April 8th, 2008 at 7pm in the Ballroom of the Campus Center at the University at Albany. This year's event will feature four panelists, each representing a different faith. The forum is designed to educate students and faculty, as well as the public, about the long history of support and activism by people of faith to ensure access to comprehensive sex education, contraception, and pregnancy options including abortion.

The panel will be comprised of four individuals. Rabbi Dennis Ross is the Director of Concerned Clergy for Choice at Family Planning Advocates of New York State, a non- profit organization dedicated to protecting and expanding access to a full range of reproductive health services. Eileen Moran is a Board Member of Catholics for Choice, an organization out of Washington D.C. founded to advocate for Catholics who believe that their faith supports a woman's moral and legal right to make her own choices in matters of sexuality and reproductive health. Reverend Tomi Jacobs is a minister with the United Church of Christ and an active member of Concerned Clergy for Choice. May Saffar is currently a professor of Arabic at Union College and has taught in the past at Hudson Valley Community College, The College of St. Rose, and in the Albany City School District. She is the cofounder of the Muslim Solidarity Committee, and has been recognized and awarded for her progressive activism in the civil rights arena.

UHPP President/ CEO, Patricia McGeown will welcome audience members to the event. “It is often completely eye-opening for students when they discover that clergy from many faiths have served as leaders in the struggle for reproductive health and justice in the United States from the earliest days of our movement. Clergy members saw directly the pain and suffering endured by women and families as a result of policies that prohibited distribution of birth control and outlawed abortions. People of faith are some of the strongest advocates for comprehensive sex education for the same reason. This forum, organized each year by students with our agency’s support, is well attended by students of many viewpoints and a tremendous opportunity for education and dialogue.”

For more information about the forum contact Blue Carreker, UHPP Vice President for Public Affairs and Marketing at 434-5678 x133 or blue@uhpp.org

Upper Hudson Planned Parenthood is a community-based non-profit organization providing advocacy, education and medical services for reproductive health care in the capital region since 1934. Our services are delivered with special concern for the underserved.

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