Assembly allows PCUSA entities stay in pro-choice coalition
The Layman Online, June 29, 1999
FORT WORTH – The 211th General Assembly voted Thursday to stay in the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC), an organization that lobbies for unrestricted abortion rights, including partial birth abortions.
Overture 99-44 from the Presbytery of Donegal called for the PCUSA to withdraw membership in and financial contributions to the Coalition, because the Coalition “describes itself as a national religious coalition promoting abortion rights, which does not reflect the position of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).”
Overture advocate James Andrew Curtis told the National and Social Issues committee that the PCUSA’s policy paper on problem pregnancies and abortion, approved by the 1992 GA, is “a policy of restraint, so any voice that speaks for the denomination also ought to be one of restraint.”
He said RCRC opposes all legislation that tries to limit abortion rights and that it does not offer adoption as an alternative to abortion.
The PCUSA’s Washington Office and Women’s Ministries Program Area are members of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice.
During plenary, only two commissioners spoke on the issue before it was called to to a vote.