Presbyterians Pro-Life NEWS
Fall 2001

2001 General Assembly acts to continue support for abortion

The General Assembly committee #13, called Health and Social Issues, was dominated by business dealing with beginning and end of life matters. Fetal and embryo stem cell research, late term abortion, the PC(USA) Board of Pensions abortion policy, and the General Assembly's abortion policy were all matters of discussion and action. Most of the business sent from presbyteries to this committee that was related to life sought actions to affirm and protect human life. None of those initiatives met with success.

The committee dealt with five overtures on issues at the beginning of life, which came from the Presbytery of East Tennessee, Salem Presbytery, Donegal Presbytery and Baltimore Presbytery.

Two of the overtures addressed late term abortions. The overtures asked the Assembly to speak for the protection of babies nearing delivery by expressing moral opposition to abortion late in pregnancy. One of the overtures asked the General Assembly to apply a 1997 statement of moral opposition to partial birth abortions by directing our Board of Pensions to exclude those abortions from its coverage. Both overtures were rejected in committee and again on the Assembly floor.

Parental notification denied
A third item of business asked the Assembly to direct the Board of Pensions to notify at least one parent of a minor daughter's intent to use the denomination's medical benefits to procure an abortion. Some committee members argued that the daughters needed to be protected from their parents' knowledge, even though to be covered they must be a daughter of our clergy or of employees of the church.

Outdated abortion policy continues in effect
One of the presbyteries asked the General Assembly to take a fresh look altogether at the abortion policy. The policy was adopted by the 1992 General Assembly and, in spite of changing attitudes about abortion and new findings and developments on many fronts, has not been reexamined since that time. That request also was rejected by the General Assembly this year.

Killing embryos for research approved
The General Assembly of 2001 appeared by its actions to oppose even minimal efforts to protect unborn lives. While rejecting overtures calling for some sign of restraint on abortion, the Assembly approved the killing of humans at the earliest stages of life for research purposes by adopting a statement sent to them by Baltimore Presbytery. The approval put the General Assembly on record as recognizing and ignoring moral concerns regarding the killing of embryos.

Presbyterians Pro-Life issued a separate statement on the subject following the decision on stem cell research funding by President Bush (see next article).

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