Does NEA have a pro-abortion policy?
The NEA does not have a pro-abortion policy. Let me read you the NEA policy: “The National Education Association supports family planning, including the right to reproductive freedom.” That’s it. That’s the entire NEA policy on “abortion.” Let me explain why NEA’s policy favoring reproductive freedom is not “pro-abortion.” Although Roe v. Wade is known as the Supreme Court’s “abortion” decision, the case stands for a much more important principle, what lawyers call the right to privacy. In Roe, the Supreme Court held that the U.S. Constitution protects the right to privacy and to reproductive freedom, and that encompasses both the right to choose abortion and the right to choose childbirth. To illustrate this point I want to tell you about four NEA-funded cases in which rights under Roe v. Wade were asserted. Case Number 1 The first case involved NEA member Jeanne Eckmann. You may have heard about this case. In the early 1980’s, she appeared on NBC’s Today Show, did an interview with F
