My journey with my children has touched every aspect of my life, including my work as president and CEO of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. For most of us fatherhood really is a choice. When one makes that choice, he must choose to be responsible for the choices he's made. Fatherhood is being more than one who participates in procreation. It is a deep appreciation for life, a giving of oneself, and helping another individual to grow, to mature, to take on values you feel are important.
Fatherhood is from conception to birth to adulthood.
And fatherhood is also about a responsibility to make sure that the women in our lives have access to adequate reproductive health care that includes, but is not limited, to access to a safe, affordable abortion. Fathers need to make sure they provide their children with a healthy image of a man that is beyond companionship. The projects of the Black Church Initiative are sensitive to the needs of young men and male participation in sexuality education. D.C. July 7-9, we are inviting and encouraging men and boys to be fully aware of the great responsibility they have in all their relationships. We will continue to bring young men in the classrooms at religious institutions who are opened and desirous of conversations about these issues, conversations that are in the presence of peers, clergy, and young women.