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Presbyterians Pro-Life

Overture offers opportunity for the Church to become actively involved in adoption

(Reprinted from Presbyterians Pro-Life NEWS, Spring 1999)

There are more than a million abortions in the United States every year. The General Assembly expresses its deep concern about the numbers of abortions in its current abortion policy:

The large number of abortions in this society is a grave concern to the church ....There is an alarming trend in the large numbers of women making this difficult choice. The church must affirm the importance of trying to reduce these numbers... (1992 General Assembly abortion policy on Problem Pregnancies and Abortion, pp. 11, 14).

The General Assembly policy calls for strategies to reduce the numbers and offer alternatives to abortion. It emphasizes the importance of adoption.

Presbyterian churches are urged to consider expanding or offering such resources as adoptive services....In addition, the church should advocate legislative measures that would buttress alternatives to abortion, such as tax incentives for adoption (1992 General Assembly policy on Problem Pregnancies and Abortion, p. 14).

Overture 99-45 offers the General Assembly opportunity to support adoption in deed as well as in word. The overture does not address directly an effort to prevent abortion. However, it does respond to the need to care for children growing up without family.

The overture points out that our denomination is in relationship with a number of childrens homes around the country that house older and special needs children who are among the most neglected of children available for adoption. The overture asks the General Assembly to establish a committee that would begin actively to identify children in those homes who are available for adoption, and then facilitate the adoptions. The overture also asks the denomination to draw upon the expertise of organizations (such as Presbyterians Pro-Life) with a ministry commitment to adoption. PPL offers materials and a program designed to help churches become actively involved in adoption.

An affirmative response by the General Assembly to this overture would be a demonstration of the church's historical message that every child is a wanted child, both by the God who created that child and by the disciples of Jesus Christ who serve Jesus by welcoming the least of his brothers and sisters.

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