Presbyterians Pro-Life

Notice to PPL Supporters
From Don Elliott, PPL President
Posted September 1, 2003

June 2003

This is a short accountability check on how your contributions are put to work in PPL along with some plans we have for the immediate future. I hope your own commitment to this pro-life witness and ministry in our denomination is increasing. The contributions to this work from faithful Presbyterians are what makes this ministry possible, and we thank God daily for your support. If you have not yet contributed to PPL, I hope we can persuade you to become partners with us in this ministry in our denomination.

Elizabeth Achtemeier once wrote that to refuse to acknowledge the humanity of the unborn child is like clinging to a flat earth philosophy. Indeed, nothing in Scripture, or science or experience supports a belief that the unborn are something other than human. Quite the contrary. It takes self-imposed blindness born of commitment to an ideology, whether knowing or unknowing, to believe that the little person who pops from the womb at nine months was something else before that "pop."

Not a hand in that picture? Not a grasp? Not a patient? Not a surgery? If he was not a human in the womb, what was he? The Armas’ are quoted by Newsweek saying, "That wasn’t our fetus, that was Samuel." Unfortunately, too many in our Presbyterian leadership prefer not to have to respond to the reality of live babies in the womb. But what is more at the heart of Christian faith than the relationship God has with human beings? And clearly the Bible teaches that the relationship begins in the womb.

A hard-won crack in the armor of defense against life occurred at the General Assembly of 2003. Against strong objections by denominational staff and resource people, the General Assembly introduced the language of "mother" and "baby" into the statement on late term abortion that it had adopted last year. The words were an offense to those who carefully crafted wording that referred only to "woman" and the "fetus," and they fought the more humanizing language.

Nevertheless, in spite of the fierce resistance, the result was that the General Assembly moved the point at which it believes a human life begins from after birth to inside the womb. It was a small but significant step.

In taking that "baby step," the G.A. adopted a revised statement that is in conflict with itself. The most critical part of the statement now reads:

While the ending of a pregnancy after the point of fetal viability is a matter of grave moral concern to us all, it may be undertaken only in the rarest of circumstances and after prayer and/or pastoral care and counsel, when necessary to save the life of the woman, to preserve the woman’s health in circumstances of a serious risk to the woman’s health, to avoid fetal suffering as a result of untreatable life threatening medical anomalies, or in cases of incest or rape. When it is deemed necessary to end a pregnancy to protect the mother’s life or health in the later months of pregnancy when the baby may be able to live outside the womb, a procedure should be considered which gives both the mother and the child the opportunity to live. (Wording in italics is from last year’s statement; wording in bold was added by this year’s G.A.)

The statement now does two opposing things: it both consents to the abortion of babies late in pregnancy for virtually any reason and counsels that an alternative to abortion should be considered in order to preserve the lives of both mother and baby. The statement contradicts itself in a way that only a clumsy political compromise could do. Human lives and moral teaching ought not to be a matter of compromise.

The compromise has led many of the media to announce that there is no change as a result of the amended language. What that announcement appears to mean is that acknowledging the presence of a "mother" and a "baby" in the womb and even using the language of "should" in considering allowing them both to live, will not alter the permission our denominational offices have to lobby in favor of late term abortion. This is a scandalous outcome.

But not all commissioners participated in the scandal. There were many committed and bold commissioners at this Assembly. One of those commissioners expressed to PPL his

More bold and committed commissioners in the years to come could provide the leadership needed to restore protection of life from the church to God’s "little ones" in the womb. We in PPL will keep working toward that day. As one person put it, little chips keep working away at a wall until suddenly the whole wall falls.

We in PPL are energetic influences at G.A. Each year Presbyterians join us there and help us bring a very visible witness–in our exhibit booth, in our dinner event featuring prominent pro-life speakers, in testimony before committees, in writing and distributing our Daily Delivery, and in many other ways. We hope you’ll consider joining us for the G.A. in Richmond in June, 2004.

But working for restoration of the biblical witness on life at General Assembly is not all that we do in PPL.

Throughout the year we are actively engaged in developing and providing resources for life to the congregations of our denomination. We’re the sole resource for life and we know that Presbyterians depend on us for assistance they cannot get from denominational offices.

Our materials include information on the biblical rationale for a pro-life position; the history of the church on life issues; the denomination’s current abortion policy; the medical benefits plan’s unrestricted abortion coverage and the availability of "Relief of Conscience"; programs for leading youth toward decisions for sexual purity and for supporting adoption decisions; resources for identifying and guiding members of your community toward alternatives to abortion; sermons on life; video curriculum on life; Sanctity of Human Life Sunday material; and more.

We are just now releasing a new resource for churches on ministering to those in your congregation who suffer the negative effects of abortion. This new resource is called "Discovering Grace."

Some of our best resources are the experienced people who work with us and can speak eloquently to your congregation on the issues of life. In fact, we’re currently in a search for an associate director to help us meet the increasing demand from congregations for the growing number of resources we provide.

We want to win this denomination’s heart and mind to the biblical position on life and we want to see pro-life ministry become an integral part of our churches’ reaching out to a despairing and needy culture.

We hope you’ll join with us in this venture with more active involvement than ever before.

We hope you’ll get involved with us at G.A. and in your own church. We count on your prayers for this ministry. And we need your financial support. We are completely reliant on you and on God’s favor for the continued presence of a strong pro-life presence in the PC(USA).

I hope we will hear from you today.

PPL is a 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization of members of the Presbyterian Church (USA). A financial statement is available upon written request from the Virginia State Division of Consumer Affairs or from PPL.