Presbytery wants PCUSA to withdraw from, end support for groups promoting abortion rights
By Craig M. Kibler, The Layman Online, February 23, 2005
A presbytery has approved an overture to the 217th General Assembly that calls on commissioners to direct “all agencies and divisions of the Presbyterian Church (USA) to cease membership in and financial support of any organization whose primary purpose is to support abortion rights.”
A minister at the meeting said the Presbytery of Sheppards and Lapsley, which met Saturday at Eastminster Presbyterian Church in Trussville, Ala., approved the measure by one vote and sent it to the General Assembly, which will meet in Birmingham, Ala., on June 15-22, 2006.
While the overture targets “any organization,” it singles out the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, a lobbying group whose aggressive pro-abortion policies conflict with General Assembly positions.
In 1999, the 211th General Assembly voted down an overture from the Presbytery of Donegal that called for the withdrawal of membership in and financial contributions to the coalition because it “describes itself as a national religious coalition promoting abortion rights, which does not reflect the position of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).”
In 2002, at the 214th General Assembly in Columbus, the Washington Office gave a “Partners in Mission Award” to the coalition, which favors no limit on women’s choice to have abortions, including so-called late-term abortions. It has been virulently critical of pro-life groups, whose concerns have been reflected in abortion-policy statements by the General Assembly. For instance, the General Assembly has said that abortion should not be used as a birth-control method and has recognized the deeply held convictions of pro-life advocates. Nonetheless, the PCUSA is one of the denominations affiliated with the coalition, and the Washington Office and Women’s Ministries Program Area are members.
In preparing a report on the “Partners in Mission Award” for the National Ministries Division of the General Assembly Council, the director of the Washington Office, the Rev. Elenora Giddings Ivory praised the Coalition for seeking “to ensure reproductive choice by upholding women as responsible, moral decision-makers.”
In the fall, shortly before President George W. Bush signed a measure into law that bans partial-birth abortions in this country, Giddings Ivory sent an “Action Alert” e-mail from her office’s Legislative Action Center that criticized U.S. legislators because they “took the easy way out” and approved the measure.
“As expected,” she wrote, “both the Senate and the House have passed the so-called ‘partial-birth’ abortion bill regarding a particular late-term procedure. Many in Washington believe that some legislators took the easy way out and voted for this knowing that the current Supreme Court will make the ultimate decision when a case is brought before it based on this bill.”
Giddings Ivory included in her e-mail a statement from the coalition that said it “opposes the legislation because support for it has been built by deception and fear, and it is so overbroad that it will unlawfully interfere with access to abortion generally, and it lacks the morally as well as legally required health exception.”
The new law is being appealed through the courts, but there has been no comment from denominational headquarters in Louisville since Congress approved it and Bush signed it. The new law places the denomination in the position of sanctioning partial-birth abortions – approved by commissioners to the 215th General Assembly – when they are banned in the United States. Numerous physicians, including Presbyterian Bill Frist, the Senate majority leader, have said that late-term abortion, besides being morally wrong, poses greater risks to women than delivery.
The full text of the overture, submitted by First Presbyterian Church in Opelika and approved by the Presbytery of Sheppards and Lapsley, states:
- “Whereas: Many Presbyterians are opposed to abortion as the taking of human life; and
- Whereas: The Presbyterian Church USA, through the office of the General Assembly – is a member of and supports the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice; and
- Whereas: The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice advocates the legalization of abortion procedures including the procedure known as ‘dilation and extraction’.
- Whereas the Presbyterian Church USA makes annual contributions to the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice; and
- Whereas no General Assembly has ever authorized our participation in or funding of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice; and
- Whereas many congregations and individual members have moral scruples against supporting by their contributions organizations who advocate practices that are viewed by them as morally abhorrent; therefore
- Be it resolved that: The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church USA directs all agencies and divisions of the Presbyterian Church (USA) to cease membership in and financial support of any organization whose primary purpose is to support abortion rights.”