Mainline-backed group affirms abortion as ‘moral religious choice’
By Mark Tooley, Institute on Religion and Democracy, September 29, 2005
The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC) convened a press conference September 6 on Capitol Hill, as the guest of the Congressional Pro-Choice Caucus.
RCRC, which opposes any restrictions on abortion, includes agencies of the United Methodist Church, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), and the Episcopal Church, among others.
Presbyterian Church (USA) lobbyist Elenora Giddings Ivory urged churches to “energetically” promote “pro-choice values.”
“The PCUSA exists within a pluralistic environment,” Ivory said. “This pluralism leads us to believe that the decision remains with the individual.”
Ivory, the chair of the board of governors for RCRC, added, “Abortion is not the only solution but at times it may be the most responsible. No Biblical text speaks to abortion, but the Bible in its totality speaks of respect for women and children after birth. Women are good moral decision-makers.” She said that it is uncertain when life begins, but all life is “precious” to God.
“God is only Lord of conscience, not the state or church,” Ivory declared.
“To be religious, as we see it, is to be pro-choice,” declared RCRC President Carlton Veazey, a minister in the National Baptist Convention USA. “To have a child is to have a sacred choice but to not have a child can be sacred choice,” he said.
RCRC opposes legislation that would prohibit partial-birth abortions and mandate parental notification in the cases of minors seeking abortions. RCRC also supports government funding of abortions.
“Religious people support the right to choose,” Veazey insisted. “This is a moral religious choice.” He recalled the situation before the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision establishing abortion as a constitutional right. The earlier prohibition on abortion “impacted poor and minorities more,” Veazey objected.
Veazey quoted controversial former U.S. Surgeon General Jocelyn Elders, who blamed most of poverty on teen pregnancy. “We believe in combating teen pregnancy,” Veazey said. He cited RCRC’s “Keeping it Real” program, which targets black churches with RCRC’s message of sexual freedom.
No black denominations belong to RCRC, which is comprised exclusively of liberal white Protestants, Catholics for a Free Choice, several Jewish groups and Unitarians.
Serra Sippel of Catholics for a Free Choice, which rejects Roman Catholic doctrine on the duty to preserve unborn life, insisted, “There is pluralism and diversity in the Catholic Church” about abortion. She said that her approach is guided by conscience, not by church teachings.
“The church focuses on the potential life of a fetus to the detriment of women whose personhood is not in question,” Sippel argued. She quoted St. Thomas Aquinas as saying it is better to be excommunicated than forced to act against conscience.
Sippel insisted that abortion rights are linked to human rights. “Clearly state when talking about rights that the question is the right when and if to have children,” she advised. “The good and moral society is one that puts decisions on reproduction in the hands of women.”
Mark Pelavin of the Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism quoted Old Testament texts that he asserted show that fetal life has less value than the mother’s life.
“What value do you advance in forcing a woman to give birth?” Pelavin asked. He linked abortions rights to religious liberty and the “value of privacy.” Pelavin also claimed that 90 percent of Jews support abortion rights.
Pelavin warned against the wider agenda of pro-life advocates. “We can’t close our eyes to the fact that those who support anti-abortion laws have a radically different view of America,” he said, alleging that pro-lifers would endanger the separation of church and state.
Also attending the RCRC press conference was the Rev. Ignacio Castuerra, a United Methodist minister who is chaplain for Planned Parenthood.
A booklet from Catholics for a Free Choice was distributed. Called “Sex in the HIV/AIDS Era: A Guide for Catholics,” the booklet asserts: “Consensual sex for unmarried people can be good if it is mutually respectful and empowering.”
Likewise, the booklet instructs Catholics: “Same-sex commitments are rightly more accepted and the human and sexual rights of all people should be upheld regardless of sexual orientation.” It continues, “Regardless of sexual orientation, people can and do establish loving and committed relationships in which sexual expression is healthy and holy.”
“The ethical norms by which we judge the goodness of sex must expand beyond the mere technical fact of marriage,” the booklet explains. “Not all sex outside of such marriages is sinful.”
RCRC, based in Washington, D.C., receives funding from the Ford Foundation and other liberal foundations. It was founded with help from the Playboy Foundation in 1973 in the wake of the Roe v. Wade decision.