By Elizabeth Achtemeier
Reprinted from Presbyterians Pro-Life NEWS, Fall 1997

Terry Schlossberg asks me to write this column three times a year, and sometimes I wonder what there is new to say about abortion that hasn't already be said. After all, it's so simple. God is the Creater and Owner of all life. Therefore it is wrong to destroy the life in the womb that God has created. What could be clearer for anyone who trusts that God knows what he is doing, even in the most difficult circumstances?

There is one essential statement that we all should be making these days, however. The General Assembly has said to the church universal and to our nation that partial birth abortion is of grave moral concern and should be practiced only if the mother's life is in danger. In short, a General Assembly that did a lot of things wrong did one thing right. It approved the minority report of the Social Justice and Witness Committee and condemned that later term, gruesome procedure.

But note well. The General Assembly took such action only because faithful pro-lifers brought an overture before it and then followed the debate through to a satisfactory conclusion. Had it not been for them, no such action would have been taken. The pro-abortion forces fought fiercely against it, but this time they could not overcome Christian conscience.

The PC(USA) became the first main-line Protestant denomination to condemn partial birth abortion. The Episcopalian Church took similar action in July. I hope everyone who reads this newsletter will trumpet that fact abroad and will take comfort in the success that pro-life efforts produced. Tell your friends, your local PPL chapter, your newspaper, your church people. If the word is spread, it may have influence on the national scene.

Take comfort also in the fact that we have just gained a powerful ally. One June 24 [1997], the 475-member House of Delegates of the American Medical Association, representing 292,000 physicians, also called for a ban on the "abhorrent and repugnant" later-term procedure. The AMA and the PC(USA) have come down on the same side! That too can influence a nation.

It has become very evident over the last ten years that Americans are very uneasy about the 1-1/2 million unborn children that are being destroyed every year. That's why the debate about abortion goes on and on.

The radical feminists keep emphasizing that abortion is their "right," and that they must have the freedom to do what they like and to kill their unborn children. And unfortunately, the feminist voice is very loud in the PC(USA). But Christians never quite swallow that argument, because somehow they know that those who belong to Jesus Christ do not belong to themselves. So occasionally, Christians drown out the opposition and vote for life instead of death, as they did in Syracuse.

Those who vote for life also get the inner peaceful feeling that maybe at least one time they have done the right thing for a Lord who wills that all persons have life. Somehow that fits in with the will of a God who overcame death in the resurrection of his Son. God voted for life with that empty tomb on Easter morn. It's very nice to know that we have joined him in that decision.

So readers, PPL members, churches, rejoice in the vote. Tell everyone else how it went. But then continue to pray and work and contribute to the forces of life. PPL works on a shoestring most of the time. Frandly, we constantly need money. And as your church is making up its budget this fall, put in a contribution for PPL. With your help and, above all, God's guidance, there will be yet more good news to come.

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